Chuck vs the National Tragedy
by JasonZ0654
Summary: AU, after 9.11, Chuck decided America doesn't need another software billionaire, but more people to keep America and its ideals safe. So he joined the Navy...
1. Prologue

**A/N: This will definitely be a Charah Story. The concept of this story is, all character histories, pre-9.11 will be as consistent with the show as I could make it. However, Chuck made a commitment to duty as a reaction to the 9.11 attack, this story will describe how everyone****'s life changed because of his decision.**

**I highly respect to all those who serve their country. As I am British, I do not have a full understanding on how everything works in the US military, so please let me know if you spot any mistakes in my military knowledge, I meant no disrespect, and would like to learn more about it. I would be very grateful for any corrections. The same goes with my grammar, spelling and punctuations, any mistakes, please let me know.**

**I try to do as much relevant research about what I am writing as possible, for e.g. I only realised half way through my first chapter, that Stanford have quarter terms, and September 11 is not actually during term time. I managed to see this mistake before I published my first chapter, however, I may not be so lucky when the next mistake of the sorts came along, so please correct me if I got anything wrong.**

**Despite that, please bear in mind this is a fiction.**

**Finally let me know what you think about the story, I welcome any suggestions and ideas.**

**Cheers for reading, hope you enjoy the story.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything.**

* * *

_**Chuck vs the National Tragedy**_

**Prologue**

**Buy More,  
Burbank, CA,  
2100 (UTC-8),  
September 11, 2001**

Chuck Bartowski was working in the cage of Burbank Buy More, this was his vacation job, he would be starting junior year at Stanford in less than 2 weeks. Chuck Bartowski double majored in Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, he started taking applied sciences classes a year ago when he realised, he would be completing the degree requirement for both Electrical and Mechanical Engineering before he finishes his junior year, and he would like to graduate with all of his classmates. But even with the third major added, he was still ahead of schedule.

Chuck had been assigned to repair all the parts built up in the cage, so he headed straight for the cage when he came in to the store in the morning, not minding anything else. With his skills, not surprisingly, he had finished before 4pm, all the repairs built up since he last left for the summer quarter of his sophomore year. For the last 5 hours, he was working on a robotic arm he designed. Chuck could literally see the potential market for a robotic arm with this kind of precision control and rapid feedback, if it ever works. Tonight, he finally finished debugging his code, and got it working, so he was pretty happy with himself; in fact, he was ecstatic, his sister would be so proud of him. However, Chuck Bartowski kept on feeling something else on the back of his mind, something significant he missed. Then it came to him, no one had bothered him all day, this is highly unusual with Jeff, Lester and his childhood friend Morgan around. Chuck asked himself. W_here was everyone today? _

Chuck decided that was a mystery he didn't care to solve, it was now time to get home, he didn't want Ellie to worry, plus he was pretty hungry, as he only had two sandwiches he brought from home, for the whole day.

As he finally locked up Buy More, he couldn't help but notice the quietness of the whole town. This quietness was suddenly interrupted by a fast approaching car, Chuck squinted, and realised it was Bryce's car.

Bryce Larkin was Chuck's best friend since he started college. Back in freshman year, when he befriended Chuck, he didn't realise not only Chuck would become his best friend, but he had just gained a family. His own family never really cared about him, Chuck was the first person who genuinely cared for him, never judged him, and pushed him wanting to be better. Then came Ellie. Bryce ended up spending more time with Chuck's family in the past 2 years than he did with his own family. And again for this summer vacation, he was staying with the Bartowski siblings and Ellie's boyfriend, Captain Awesome. Bryce knew he would do anything for the Bartowski siblings.

Chuck looked at Bryce, and noticed an expression never seen on his friend's face. Gone was the cheerful, confident and almost smug look, Bryce looked, panicked and vacant as he approached Chuck. Chuck was worried, his friend was never like this, he asked, "What's going on, buddy? Are you okay?"

Bryce almost chuckled at this, he was supposed to check up on Chuck for Ellie, not the other way round. "Yeah, I'm fine, buddy. Ellie was worried, you didn't answer your phone for the whole day."

Chuck checked his phone immediately, there it is, he got 34 missed calls from his sister. Chuck immediately called back, and Ellie answered on the first ring.

"Chuck!" exclaimed a very anxious Ellie.

"Hey sis, are you okay? Sorry, I didn't answer your call earlier. I just saw your 34 missed calls when Bryce prompted me. What's going on Ellie…" …" Chuck started to babble from his own anxiety.

"You are babbling again, Chuck." Said Ellie, sounding much more relaxed. "I am fine, just come home, okay?"

"Sure, I am heading back now, I'll see you soon sis."

* * *

**Echo Park,  
Burbank, CA,  
2130 (UTP-8),  
September 11, 2001,**

Bryce drove Chuck back to Echo park in silence, Chuck wasn't able to get Bryce to tell him what's going on, except a "You'll see when you get home." Seeing the solemn expression on his best friend's face, Chuck decided to leave it alone, until he can get back to Ellie's apartment.

The moment they stepped into the apartment complex, a brunette woman run out of her apartment, and enveloped Chuck in a bone crushing hug. Chuck returned the gesture, albeit not as strongly, as he was trying to breathe.

"Thank God, you are okay, Chuck." Muffled a sobbing Ellie.

By now, Chuck became somewhat frustrated, he still didn't know where all these angst come from, and nobody was telling him anything. "What's going on, sis?"

Ellie let go of his brother, and could tell he was still oblivious to the tragedy taken place today. She didn't know where to start, "let's get back into the apartment, you will understand once you watched the news."

Bryce and Chuck followed Ellie back into the apartment, first thing Chuck noticed was Captain Awesome, hopefully his future brother-in-law, sitting on the sofa with a vacant expression, eyes locked on to the television set. Only then, Chuck directed his attention towards the TV, needless to say, he was shocked by what he was seeing.

For the first time, Chuck saw the footage of the attack, the footage of smoke coming out of the Twin Towers, the footage of the collapsing Twin Towers and the footage of the wrecked Pentagon. He collapsed on to the bed, next to Awesome. Like Devon "Awesome" Woodcomb, his eyes were transfixed on the television.

"Oh God." That was the only sound came out of Chuck's lips for the next hour.

Nobody said a word for the next hour. Chuck finally broke the silence by asking if Devon and Bryce's families are alright. Bryce smiled at this, it seemed like nothing could stop his best friend from worrying about the others. After getting confirmations from both Devon and Bryce, Chuck went off to call his girlfriend Jill Roberts.

10 minutes later, Chuck came back, and explained Jill was with her family, they were all fine, and she wanted to be alone for now. Chuck complied with her wishes after some protest.

The four family members then chatted for hours with each other, about nothing and everything, till everyone fell asleep.

* * *

**Echo Park,  
Burbank, CA,  
1000 (UTC-8),  
September 12, 2001**

Buy More was closed for the rest of the week. Bryce and Chuck were playing video games, trying to not think about what happened the day before, with no success. Chuck suddenly stopped the game and turned to Bryce.

"What the hell, Chuck? I was winning!"

"I am joining the Navy, Bryce." Chuck said rapidly, he didn't get much sleep, and had been thinking hard since 4 am in the morning.

Bryce was taken aback by Chuck's statement. He let go of the controller, and turned his full attention to Chuck. "Chuck, are you sure about this? What about your dream of becoming a software billionaire."

"The world doesn't need another software billionaire, being a software billionaire won't help me to prevent all those death taken place yesterday. All those lives, there were parents, sons, daughters, sisters…" Chuck paused for a moment to compose himself, and with a more determined voice, said, "My sister is becoming a doctor, she would be helping people for the rest of her life. When all I am doing is helping myself, I can't be that selfish. By joining the Navy, however little, I would be able to do my part to help preventing the next attack."

Bryce was moved by Chuck's speech, he and his sister were the only two people able to do this to him, so of course would support his friend. "Chuck, the last thing you are is selfish. If you are sure about this, of course I will support you. But make sure you think this through, have you talked to Ellie and Jill yet?"

"No, I haven't, I am going to tell Jill when we get back to Stanford, I hope she can understand." Chuck looked down, clearly unsure of how that conversation was going to go, then he looked up again with determination. "If I haven't changed my mind by the evening, I will tell Ellie then." Despite saying that, Bryce could tell from his eyes that, he already had his mind set on it. And when Chuck Bartowski set his mind on something, he would not be dissuaded, and he would do it to the best of his abilities. The best of one's abilities, when it comes to the Bartowski's, it was rather scary.

"Sure, would you like me to be there for you when you talk to Ellie?" Bryce asked his best friend sincerely.

"If you could, that would be great, buddy. Thank you! Besides, it's a family discussion, and you are part of the family." Chuck replied with a small but a genuine smile. Bryce didn't know how Chuck does it, he always seemed able to touch his soul, the way even his parents couldn't.

* * *

**The idea of having Chuck react to the 9.11 attack came from the story ****'Chuck vs the Day that Changed Everything****' by supsfan18, which was an absolute brilliant story, if he/she ever get to finish it.**


	2. Ch1: Route to Graduation

**A/N: I found some minor spelling mistakes in the prologue, and got them fixed, hopefully they weren't too noticeable.**

* * *

**Chapter 1 - Route to Graduation**

**Stanford University,  
Stanford, CA,  
1600 (UTC-8),  
January 25, 2002**

Chuck Bartowski walked out of the examination room with a smile on his face, he had just finished his last exam for his undergraduate degree. It was Professor Fleming's subliminal image test. This was one of his 2 back up tests. Chuck was sure he already completed the requirement to graduate with, double majors in Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering and a minor in applied sciences. But just in case someone decided to play a trick on him, Chuck took 2 extra tests to make sure he would graduate. Now that the plan was all coming together, he felt like quoting Col. John 'Hannibal' Smith, before he could stop himself, he whispered to nobody with a smile, "I love it when a plan comes together."

* * *

_Flashback to the day Chuck created the plan._

**Echo Park,  
Burbank, CA,  
2030 (UTC-8),  
September 12, 2001**

Chuck Bartowski had just announced hie decision to join the Navy to the rest of his family, right after dinner. He didn't want to miss a home cooked meal made by Ellie, especially when it could be his last, if his sister became so pissed that she was kicking him out. Fortunately, that did not happen. Ellie still gave him an earful though, eventually, Ellie relented, with two conditions. Of course there were conditions! One, he must complete his degree at Stanford; two, he would always try his hardest to come home to her. Despite how worried Ellie knew she was going to be, she was so proud of her brother, and she told him so. After all, this was how she raised him, to always place others' needs before his own.

Bryce and Devon didn't get off so easy though. Ellie berated them for not trying their hardest to dissuade her brother, even though, Ellie knew it wouldn't work anyway, she did know her baby brother after all. Still, that didn't stop her from kicking Devon to the doghouse for the night.

Chuck watched this scene with some amusement, but mostly, he felt sorry for his 'brothers', he didn't want them to pay for the decision he was making. But there you go, that's what you get for having an overprotective big sister. Naturally, Chuck decided to share his brothers' pain, and chose to stay with Bryce and Devon in the living room.

* * *

**Echo Park,  
Burbank, CA,  
0000 (UTC-8),  
September 13, 2001**

The three brothers were lying on their respective makeshift beds, none of them were sleeping. Chuck knew if he wanted to join the Navy, he was going to need a plan. He wanted to join as soon as possible, so he had to graduate as soon as he could. Chuck wasn't exactly the fittest guy you see around the campus, in fact, he was a proudly self-acclaimed 'professional nerd', so he would have to get on with physical conditioning soon. Chuck did not need any help to graduate faster, but he knew he would need help with physical training, naturally, the two 'brothers' lying next to him came to his mind. Captain Awesome could easily pass off as a fitness model, and Bryce was a star athlete.

Since no one was sleeping, Chuck broke the silence in the living room. "Guys, I am going to need a plan, and I am going to need your help."

Devon loved Chuck like his own brother, so the answer came easily for him. "Sure thing, bro!"

Bryce was honestly bored with lying down doing nothing, "Let's get started now, buddy! Shall we?"

The three brothers sat around the kitchen table, and Chuck started off. "I want to join the Navy as soon as possible, there are two options, one is to join the Naval ROTC programme; the other is to attend 12 weeks of Officer Candidate School right after graduation. I am fairly confident that, I could complete my two major in Engineering, and maybe a minor in Applied Sciences within the next two quarters. Therefore, the fastest option for me at the moment, is to graduate at the end of Winter Quarter coming up, and attend OCS straight after."

"That's a sound plan, bro!" Devon was impressed.

"Yeah, Buddy! What do you need us to help with?" After living with Chuck for 2 years, Bryce knew Chuck could achieve what he just said easily.

"I am going to need your help for my physical conditioning…"

* * *

_The next 4 months_

Since that day, Chuck Bartowski had worked his butt off. The first two weeks were the worst, luckily, school didn't start again until after those two torturous weeks, Chuck wasn't sure he could do anything more than sitting in the Cage working, after the things his supposedly 'brothers' were putting him through every day. Bryce and Devon weren't cutting him any slacks, they both knew by getting Chuck fitter, he would have a better chance getting back home alive, and they both wanted their brother coming home alive.

Devon wrote an extremely detailed workout plan for him to work through the term, with Bryce making sure Chuck completed all of them. After another two weeks, Chuck started to find himself enjoying all the exercises. Thus, Bryce pushed him to take martial art classes with him, started with kick boxing. It seemed like all Chuck's previous clumsy limbs were full of untapped potentials, Chuck was able to pick up the moves and logic behind each move rapidly. Four months later, now, Chuck was competent in boxing, kick boxing, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Tai Chi. He also took the time to learn the background and culture behind these martial arts.

Bryce was spending most of his free time during the term training with Chuck, Chuck didn't know it, but Bryce needed all these training himself, he still haven't told Chuck that he was recruited to the CIA recently, he wasn't sure he ever will, he would never intentionally put his brother in danger.

Bryce could see how significantly, all these running, cycling, resistant training and martial arts classes, was improving Chuck's physique, even though Chuck himself was oblivious to it. Bryce didn't say anything though, he knew Chuck wasn't vain, and none of the resistance exercises were designed to put mass on him, they were just the side benefit. Now Chuck had a tall, lean and muscular frame, even most of their frat brothers were jealous of.

Just because Chuck was oblivious to his newly acquired 'guns', others especially the women on the campus weren't. More women were starting to talk to Chuck, and Bryce just stood beside him, watching with amusement, how Chuck still stumbled with his words around attractive women. Bryce had got to admit though, Chuck was getting better, he seemed to become more confident, the more women he talked with.

Jill was another story, Bryce could tell she was becoming more conflicted since coming back from summer break. She had accepted Chuck's decision to join the Navy easily enough, and she looked like she was enjoying the benefits of Chuck's new training regime. Halfway through the Autumn Quarter, a conflicted expression seemed to be permanently plastered on her face, except when she was around Chuck, it was obvious to Bryce that Jill, was hiding her confliction and whatever it was conflicting her, from Chuck. Bryce figured they would be able to solve their problems themselves, it could just be that Jill wasn't enjoying the predatory looks given to Chuck by the women on the Campus.

Little did either Bryce or Chuck know, Jill was recruited to a branch of CIA called 'Fulcrum' by her Uncle Bernie after 9.11. They instructed her to cut all ties, and she was working through how to break up with Chuck. She did love him after all.

Besides all these training, Chuck was sailing through his studies. He had talked to the Undergraduate Administrator, who agreed to allow him to graduate, as soon as he finished the exams for his subjects' requirements, in exchange, Chuck would have to promise a speech during a Commencement in the future.

During Christmas, Chuck used the break from school to apply patents for the designs of his robotic arms, and by the end of the Christmas break, he already licensed his design to several technology companies, including a company producing robotic surgical equipment, which his sister was so fond of.

_End of Flashback_

* * *

**Stanford University,  
Stanford, CA,  
1630 (UTC-8),  
January 25, 2002**

By now, Chuck already made millions from the initial licensing fees of his robotic arm design. The royalties from this one product would keep him afloat for the rest of his life. This only made Chuck more determined to join the Navy, he wanted so badly to do something for this great country, to give something back. Given that he completed his robotic arm project on that fateful day, Chuck decided to set up his bank account so that when the royalties come in each months, half of it would be donated to a selected number of charities, that help 9/11 first responders, survivors and victims' families.

None of his family knew about his new found wealth yet, he was going to surprise Ellie, by paying off hers and Captain Awesome's student loans. He had already set up a secret account for the sole purpose of paying for Ellie's wedding. Chuck knew Bryce came from a wealthy family, and he didn't even need to take out student loans, so Chuck made something himself for Bryce, something to show how grateful he was for their friendship. As for Morgan, it was a difficult decision. Chuck knew what Morgan would want, in a nut shell, lots of video games, but he wanted Morgan to make something of himself, so Chuck secretly got him a place at a community college in Burbank to study Business and Management, hoping that was the push Morgan needed to grow out of his man-child phase.

As for Jill, Chuck had a plan ready, he was going to purpose to her, to officially make her part of the Bartowski family, he even got the ring ready. Now all he had to do was to pop the question, and he was going to do that tonight during a romantic dinner.

As Chuck ticked off the most important people in his life on his mental list, he headed back towards his room with a bounce in his steps.

* * *

_At the exact moment in Jill__'s room._

Jill also had a plan, she couldn't drag it any longer, she had to break up with Chuck, she could tell he was getting ready to purpose, despite how much he was trying to hide it. If she knew this was going to happen, Jill would never had joined Fulcrum, now her whole life had turned upside down. Jill knew she couldn't easily convince Chuck that she didn't love him anymore, so she decided to do something she knew would work, something that would cloud Chuck's brilliant mind, so he wouldn't see right through her, and that something was to make Chuck feel so betrayed in every sense of the way.


	3. Ch2: No Plan Survives First 'Engagement'

**Chapter 2 - No Plan Survives First 'Engagement'**

**Unknown Freeway, CA,  
2100 (UTC-8),  
January 25, 2002**

An Aston Martin V12 Vanquish cut down the road like there was no tomorrow, its driver, Chuck Bartowski, couldn't care less about the speed limit at this moment, he was furious.

Needless to say, the proposal didn't go as planned. Chuck had knocked on Jill's door, dressed ready for a big date. He had bought a new tailored suit, dressed in a dark coloured shirt, and for the first time, he realised how his training had helped him to fill out the suit. When Jill had opened the door, she didn't look ready at all. Jill said something, and shut the door in his face before he could get a word out, leaving a shocked Chuck to let what Jill had just said to sink in.

Eventually, her words did sink in, and Chuck had never felt so much pain, he was betrayed by his girlfriend and his best friend. Jill had informed him that, she was breaking up with him, because she was sleeping with and fell in love with Bryce. Extremely furious didn't even come close to what Chuck was feeling, at that moment, Chuck felt like turning in to the Hulk, and starting a rampage. Since that wasn't an option, Chuck ran like hell, aimlessly, not sure for how long, until he ran past an Aston Martin dealership.

The manager was just about to close shop, Chuck ran inside impulsively, chucked the manager his credit card, and asked to buy the fastest car in the shop.

So here he was, driving a brand new silver coloured 2002 Aston Martin V12 Vanquish, for God knows how long. Chuck was initially rusty with the 6-gear manual gearbox, but he got the hang of it quite quickly, he then drove on to the first freeway he could find, and just drove aimlessly and let the V12 beast roar down the street.

* * *

**The Beach,  
****Burbank, CA,  
****0500 (UTC-8),  
****January 26, 2002**

His anger had dissipated somewhat after hours of speeding across California highway, Chuck had let the logic side of his brain take over again. He needed to think, so he found his way back to Burbank, to his beach. This was his sanctuary, his Fortress of Solitude. Chuck chuckled at the thought, not much of a Fortress, he was going to build a real fortress for himself one day.

He looked back to everything had happened since that tragic day, and used that brilliant brain of his, started to analyse everything. Chuck had realised Bryce couldn't have been sleeping with Jill behind his back, they spent most of their free time training together, they were pretty much inseparable for the past 4 months. The only periods of time he wasn't spending with Bryce, he was with Jill himself. Chuck's heartache lessened significantly as he realised the person he considered the brother he never had, didn't betray him.

But he still couldn't figure out what was going on with Jill, why would she break up with him, when everything seemed to be going well. He reanalysed each moment he had with Jill again, only then, Chuck realised Jill had been pulling away for the past three months, so maybe she did want to break up with him. But why would she try to destroy his friendship with Bryce as well, this Chuck could not understand and could not forgive easily either. Whether Jill was cheating on him or not, she betrayed him regardless, she should not have tried to destroy the bond he shared with Bryce. Chuck decided he shouldn't worry himself about why Jill broke up with him, but that didn't mean he no longer feel the heartache caused by her. Chuck chucked the ring box into a surf, and watched it disappear, he wasn't sure if he could ever love again, and that realisation hurt even worse. Tears started dropping freely from Chuck's chocolate brown eyes.

* * *

**The Beach,  
Burbank, CA,  
0600 (UTC-8),  
January 26, 2002**

Chuck had been crying on the beach, alone, for an hour, he had finally got his emotion under control. He had lost Jill, but he still had his family, Ellie, Awesome, Bryce and Morgan, he would cherish these people, who stood by him through the better days and the worse ones, and never let go. As for Jill, he would try to forget her, and love her a little less every day, remember her a little less every day, until he no longer love or remember one Jill Roberts.

As for now, he would try to look at the brighter side of this "Jill debacle", he would no longer need to worry about leaving a widow at home, while he was deployed, and Chuck would still have people he loves, and people who loved him to hold on to, to remember why he was fighting.

With a new determination, he walked back to his new car, and for the first time, he fully appreciated the beauty of the beast he just bought. Chuck decided he would stay with Ellie for the weekend, he really needed to get away from Stanford to clear his head for a few days.

* * *

**Echo Park,  
Burbank, CA,  
1400 (UTC-8),  
January 26, 2002**

The front door of Ellie and Devon's apartment was forced open, and in came a frantically looking Bryce. Ellie had been furious when she found out about what had happened, in the hind sight, Chuck wasn't sure staying with Ellie was the best idea. It took both Devon and himself to stop Ellie from driving to Stanford, and murdering Jill herself. Even with all his newly acquired martial art skills, Chuck was still terrified of a Hurricane Ellie. Ellie had called Bryce afterwards, when Bryce was informed about Jill's claim of cheating with him, before Ellie could say another word, Bryce had hang up, but not before informing Ellie that, he would be in Burbank shortly.

Bryce had spotted Chuck on the sofa, and almost ran towards him. For the first time in his life, Bryce was scared, Chuck's friendship was one thing in the world he couldn't loss.

"Chuck! I am so sorry about what had happened, but you got to believe me, I never slept with Jill. I admit I am a womanizer, but she is your girl, I would never betray us like that. Please tell me you believe me." Bryce almost begged. By now Bryce had already taken a seat next to Chuck, trying to catch his eyes.

After a moment, Chuck sensed his best friend was squirming, he was somewhat amused, he had never seen Bryce panic. Bryce was always in control. Despite he was somehow enjoying seeing this side of Bryce, Chuck couldn't be that cruel, he looked up to Bryce. "Relax Bryce. She **was** my girl. Past tense. And I believe you." Hearing this, Bryce let go of a breath he didn't realise he was holding. He could tell from the sincerity in Chuck's eyes that he really did believe him.

Seeing his brother relaxed, Chuck continued, "If you could have stayed on the phone with a minute longer, Ellie could have told you that I had already figured out you weren't going behind my back with Jill."

Ellie chimed in, "And you wouldn't have to break down my front door, Bryce." Ellie glared at him in mock anger. Bryce cowered a bit, he loved Ellie like a sister, but God, that woman was intimidating. He had toyed with the idea of suggesting to the CIA, to recruit her as an interrogator.

Bryce smiled sheepishly, and put on his charming smile, "Sorry, I will go fix it."

"I will help," Chuck jumped in, wanting something to do to keep his mind away from Jill, "Can I borrow Devon's truck key, we need to pick up some supplies from Large Mart."

* * *

**Echo Park,  
Burbank, CA,  
1230 (UTC-8),  
January 27, 2002**

The family was having lunch together, not surprisingly, Ellie cooked, she decided Chuck needed as much of her comfort food as possible. The rest of the weekend was relatively uneventful. Bryce and Chuck found their dynamic again easily while fixing Ellie's door; Morgan came over Saturday evening to play video games with Bryce and Chuck, Ellie had to kick him out after 11 pm. No one mentioned Jill's name at all for the rest of the weekend, and Chuck was grateful for that.

But Ellie being Ellie, she wanted to know what Chuck was going to do after this disaster, and she couldn't wait any longer, so she cautiously asked, "Chuck, what are your plans now?"

"Relax Ellie, you can say her name, I am not going to break down," Chuck joked without much humour behind his voice. "But I do appreciate all of you keeping my mind off her for the weekend."

Bryce cut in, "From now on, if we have to mention her, she should be called 'she-who-must-not-be-named'." That actually got a laugh out of Chuck, and everybody joined in eventually.

"So, you haven't answered my question, Chuck?" Ellie ventured again after the laughter had died down.

Chuck thought carefully for a moment, and said. "Well, I have finished my last exam this Friday, since I had waived the ceremony, I am officially graduated. I was going to stay at Stanford until the end of the quarter, and head off Rhode Island for OCS in March. But after Ji, I meant she-who-must-not-be-named," Chuck said with a small smile looking at Bryce, "I really need to get away from Stanford, so I will be contacting OCS tomorrow to see if they could load me onto an earlier class. In the meantime, I need to head back to Stanford, get my diploma, pack up my stuff, and move them to my storage unit. I will come back Tuesday evening, and to stay with you until I head off to OCS, if that's ok with you?"

"Of course that's Ok, I am throwing you a going away party!" Chuck groaned at this, but seeing his sister's glare, he knew better than to voice his objection, it was going to be useless anyway. Ellie continued. "Do you need any help with packing and moving, Chuck?"

"Don't worry about it, sis. That's what frat brothers are for. Plus since you are throwing me a party anyway, let's make it next Saturday, so they could help me move my boxes, and come straight here for the party, without missing any lectures."

An hour later, Chuck and Bryce said their goodbyes to Ellie and Awesome, and headed out. Bryce suddenly remembered something, and asked, "How did you get back to Burbank, Chuck?"

Chuck smiled, "I will show you if you promise to keep this a secret for until the day before I leave for Rhode Island."

Bryce nodded, not sure where Chuck was going with this. Chuck led Bryce a block away from his sister's apartment complex, and fished out his car key. He unlocked his Aston Martin remotely, and watched Bryce carefully as his chin dropped to the floor, Chuck was definitely savouring the moment of surprising his always-sure-of-himself best friend.

"How?" That was the only word came out of Bryce as he appreciated the V12 beauty in front of him.

"I will explain when we get back to Stanford. Here, give me your car keys, you can drive her back to Stanford." Chuck said, throwing Bryce his Aston Martin keys, which Bryce caught easily, barely containing his excitement. Seeing the glee in his best friend's eyes made Chuck happy, he decided to go a step further. "You can keep it until I finish OCS, I don't want to show up at the base with something this flashy."

Bryce could barely believe what he was hearing, but he wasn't surprised with Chuck's reasoning. "Thanks bro, I knew there was a reason I befriended you!" Bryce joked.

"Haha, funny guy, just remember, no hanky panky in the back seat."

Bryce waved him off dismissively, he would **try** to not to have a girl in the back seat, but he wasn't going to make any promises.

* * *

**Echo Park,  
Burbank, CA,  
1700 (UTC-8),  
January 29, 2002**

A 1967 Pontiac GTO slowly rolled into a parking spot. After driving the Vanquish, Chuck had a new appreciation for fast cars, or maybe he was just trying to fill the Jill void by taking care of a car, something that would never betray him. Chuck always loved the classics, and the Vanquish is more Bryce than Chuck, so Chuck searched on the internet, and found a 67' GTO hardtop in good condition, and bought it. Just because he loved the classics, Chuck was also an engineer, he even got a diploma to prove it, which he had just received the day before. So this car was going to be his project before OCS, with the 6.6L V8 engine in this beast, Chuck would transform her to a piece of high performance machine in no time.

Still, Chuck needed to hurry up, he managed to get moved to an earlier class, he was to report in at the Naval Station Newport, in less than 3 weeks, on Monday 18th. Chuck wanted to drive all the way to Rhode Island, and to enjoy the scenery along the way, Chuck had planned for a week for the journey. So that left him with two weeks to modify his baby, and to get even fitter than he was now.

Now all he had to do, was to come up with an explanation for Ellie on how he got the car, without revealing the whole truth. He wasn't going to lie to Ellie, he was just going to water down the truth a little bit, for now.

* * *

**Stanford University,  
Stanford, CA,  
1000 (UTC-8),  
February 1, 2002**

Professor George Fleming's TA, Flavia Conners, was marking the undergraduate students' subliminal image tests, she had just finished grading Charles Bartowski's paper. The petite, attractive brunette was awed by Chuck's grade, 98%, that was nearly 20% higher than the next highest mark. Flavia remembered Chuck from quite a number of Professor Fleming's lectures, she had to admit she had only noticed him in the past 3 months or so, it seemed like he had been working out, a lot. He was still lanky, but a solid kind of lanky, and she could tell was not the only girl who had noticed the change. Too bad he had a girlfriend, whom Flavia heard had broken up with him, _stupid skank_, maybe she should make a move on him, Flavia thought to herself.

Flavia brought out Chuck's file out of curiousity, only then, she realised Chuck was still in his junior year, so what was he doing taking a senior year class? Flavia was intrigued. She read on, and saw that Chuck had already graduated this week, with 2 majors and a minor under special request, to join the Navy. Erm, smart, handsome and selfless, could this guy be more perfect, that **ex**-girlfriend of his must be real dumb.

Oh well, there was no point to hand his test result to Professor Fleming, now that he had already left, Flavia put his subliminal image test in his file, and carried on marking the rest of the tests, while thinking how much she would enjoy taking that white navy dress uniform off one Chuck Bartowski.

* * *

**A/N: Sorry, no Sarah yet, according to her background in the show, she wouldn't graduate for another 6 months. But I promise, Sarah would make her debut within the next two chapters.**

**Besides, I want to really develop Chuck's character and personalities before he got kicked out, i.e. Capable, although not confident with girls, but definitely confident with his own abilities. In addition, Chuck's personality is further augmented by 9/11, and I believe his new found drive for serving his country would play a very important role in not sending Chuck into depression and kept him level headed to realise Bryce did not sleep with Jill. Jill's break up with Chuck took place earlier in here than it did in the show, I want to explain that by Chuck's accelerated schedule to propose.**

**I was quite peeved when I started this chapter, I noticed Chuck's affinity towards Mustang GTs (his father's car) in the show, and personally, I prefer Dodge Challengers, regardless, none of these cars were in production in 2002, and I wanted the impulsive Chuck to buy a brand new performance car out of, well, impulsion. So I ended up giving him a Vanquish first. I didn't realise the benefit of this until later, you will see why in the next chapter.**

**Now, some review feedback: First of all, thank you all so much for your encouraging reviews. And don't worry, there would be no Bryce/Sarah coupling at all. Chuck and Sarah are pretty much love at first sight, but it won't be a jump right in the deep end relationship either. I am not going to reveal more than this, you will just have to find out as I continue the story.**

**Lastly, hope you enjoyed this chapter, please read and review. I would love more suggestions/ideas/corrections/etc.**


	4. Ch3: Three Letters

**A/N: Thank you for all your reviews, I appreciate them very much. I will write the review feedback at the end of the Chapter.**

* * *

**Chapter 3 - Three Letters**

**Echo Park,**  
**Burbank, CA,**  
**0900 (UTC-8),**  
**February 10, 2002**

2 weeks passed rather too quickly for Ellie's liking, today Chuck was going start his cross-country journey towards Rhode Island. She would not be able to see him again until his commissioning ceremony, after that, only God knew when she would be able to see him.

It was a rather uneventful 2 weeks. The party last Saturday was well attended, filled with heartfelt goodbyes and good lucks. Chuck had told Ellie he had sold one of his designs, which paid for his car, but he wouldn't tell her any specifics of it, Ellie could tell Chuck was hiding something, but Chuck was adamant on keeping it as a surprise for when he leaves, so Ellie eventually relented. What she didn't know was, how close Chuck came to crack, and telling her everything.

Chuck had also finished upgrading his car, everything except the shell and the engine was replaced with new and better parts. Most of the upgrades, like the racing seats, roll cage, etc., were off the shelf parts; but almost all of the performance upgrades, e.g. the electronic control unit (ECU), supercharger, were redesigned and modified by Chuck after he got the standard components from the shops. Now the 6.6L V8 beauty was repainted with a beautiful shade of dark blue metallic paint; the supercharger protruded out of the bonnet, working together with the V8 engine, could produce more than 800 brake horse power, reaching over 6500 rpm; acceleration had improved significantly, she could now accelerate from 0 to 62mph in under 2.3 seconds, Chuck had managed to finish a quarter mile drag in her, in just under 8 seconds. Needless to say, Chuck was quite pleased. Chuck was a nerd after all, not surprisingly, the 67' GTO was now fitted with many little nerdy gadgets, Bluetooth, GPS, remote control, and of course, an impressive audio system with an 800 watts subwoofer. The interior of the car, although look very modern and advanced, but had a classic feel to it, making the GTO not only perform well, but look great as well.

Chuck threw two bags in the trunk, one filled with change of clothes, the other filled with his toolkit and gadgets in case he had some use for them. He turned around to face his family. Bryce and Devon kept their emotions in control, and both gave him a brotherly but tight hug. Ellie was not so successful in the emotional control department, she sobbed for 20 minutes as she gripped Chuck hard, Chuck was on the verge of passing out, but hugged her back just as tightly, none the less. Lastly, it was Morgan's turn, he climbed onto Chuck like a monkey climbing a tree, and wouldn't let go, Bryce and Devon had to pry him off Chuck. Not a single word was spoken during this whole ordeal, it wasn't needed, the bond between them was so strong that they didn't need any verbal communication to understand each other's emotions.

Finally Chuck jumped into his car, but not before handing them three letters. With that, Chuck drove off with a roar coming out of the GTO.

The foursome walked back to Ellie's apartment, they had decided to read all three letter's together.

* * *

**_To Ellie and Devon,_**

_Dear Ellie and Awesome,_

_If all is going according to plan, you should be reading this right after I left for Rhode Island, and we would have already said our goodbyes, so I am going to skip out that bit._

_Ellie, you are the best sister and mother one could ask for. After our mother left, you took care of us, you kept a roof over our heads, you kept food (absolutely delicious food if I may add) on the table, and you sent me to college. Meanwhile, amazingly, you are only a year from graduating medical school and got yourself such an awesome boyfriend. I don__'t think you even realise how amazing you are._

_Devon, you are the brother I never had, for the past three years, you were there for me as much as Ellie was. Not to mention being my personal trainer, you spent a lot of time having bro talk with me, you never saw me as the little brother who always get in the way. I am going to miss those bro talks._

_As much as it would be fun for me to see you guys blush, the point of this was, you both were there for me, always, you guys did so much for me, and I will be eternally grateful. But actions speaks more than words, I always wanted to do something for you, too, and now, finally, I am in a position to do so._

_When I told you guys I sold one of my designs, I didn__'t go into specifics, mostly I wanted to keep it a surprise, but also partly, I want to save my eardrum from Ellie__'s Happy Squeal. So here are the specifics, the design in question was the robotic arm I finished on the day of the attack. Last Christmas, I got the patent for it, and licensed it to a number of companies, including that surgical equipment company, Intuitive Surgical Inc., you liked so much. I am going to spare you the details, basically, the pay-out for the licensing fees was quite large, (Devon, you should cover your ears now), large as in tens of millions large. That__'s right, your little brother is a millionaire now._

_So, I decided to do something good with all that money, and one of them was paying both of your student loans. Inside this letter, you should find two receipts stating both of your tuition fees and student loans are paid in full. _

_Please accept this gift from me, it was the least I can do. And please don__'t thank me, I am doing this for all the lives you two are going to save. I have no doubt in my mind, that both of you would become the best doctors in the world._

_See you soon sis,_

_See you soon Awesome,_

_I love you both,_

_Your wonderful brother, Chuck_

_P.S. Hey sis, make sure you allow the Captain to breathe for a bit._

* * *

Like Chuck had predicted, Ellie had Devon in a bone crushing hug, squealing with happy tears. Poor Devon was regretting not taking Chuck's advice to cover his ear now. "Ellie… remember… Chuck… said… breathe." Devon choked out. Ellie decided to take pity on him, but she was still full of emotions, joy, pride, love, Ellie Joy needed another victim.

Bryce, the spy-in-training was trying to get his emotions under control, he was going to be a spy, he couldn't shed a tear because of a damn letter, damn that Chuck Bartow…, the rest of his thoughts was interrupted, as he and Morgan became Ellie Joy's next victims. _See what happens when you lose your focus, Bryce, you could have been killed, and by the looks of it, it__'s still a possibility. _Bryce scolded himself in Ellie's embrace.

* * *

**_To Bryce_**

_Dear Bryce,_

_I know you don__'t care much for expressing feelings, so I will make this as painless as possible for you. _

_Stanford had been the best time of my life. I am sure I would still have enjoyed it without meeting you, but I would never have this much fun if it wasn__'t for you and your friendship. Bottom line is, without meeting you, I would never have experienced so much of the college life, I would never have joined a frat house, and I would never have enjoyed two years of loving relationship with a hot girl. How that ended wasn__'t your fault, you couldn__'t have known, and I choose to thank you for the two years when Jill and I were happy. Just like I want to thank you for all the good times we had, as well as all the tough times we shared, and I just want to say, your friendship means more to me than you will ever know._

_On my table, next to my computer, you should be able to find a box addressed to you. It__'s a watch I made specifically for you, it acts as an encrypted signal relay station, I have an identical one made for myself. This will allow us to communicate no matter where we are, and how far we are apart. The details of how it works is in an instruction manual inside the box._

_Although it__'s undetectable even by the NSA, try to only use it in case of an emergency, I can__'t be distracted by random conversations with people while I am on operations. This is why I am only trusting you with one of these watches, and neither my sis nor Morgan gets to have one. I am sorry to put you into this position, but you probably would have to fight Ellie off for the watch._

_Take care of yourself, I am sure I will see you around sooner rather than later._

_I love you, brother,_

_Chuck Bartowski,_

_P.S. Keep the Aston Martin, It__'s too much of a Bond car, despite how much I like James Bond movies, you are definitely more of the super spy type than me. Besides, I would have to bleach the car first anyway if I wanted the car back, God knows what you__'ve been up to in her._

* * *

While reading the letter, a tear involuntary dropped from Bryce, at one point, he whispered to no one in particular, "I know, brother, trust me, I know." When reading the postscript, Bryce couldn't help but to think, _that was hitting way to close to home, surely he couldn__'t have known I have been recruited by the CIA._ Regardless, since Chuck believed he could be a superspy without knowing about his chosen career, Bryce was going to make damn sure he would become one of the best spies in CIA history. Chuck always had the ability to make people wanting to be the best they could be.

After reading his letter, Bryce headed to Chuck's old room by himself, and found two boxes on Chuck's table. One addressed to him, the other to Morgan. He opened up the box addressed to him, and saw the watch. It looked expensive, and nothing out of the ordinary except for being a luxury watch, but Bryce knew, Chuck had made extensive modifications to it. He put the watch on, and pocketed the instruction manual, that was when he found the pink slip for the Aston Martin.

Bryce headed back to the living room, and passed Morgan his box while at it. Morgan was extremely excited to get his own box, while Ellie was eyeing Bryce's new watch with a predatory gleam. After a moment, Ellie decided her brother had a point, she can't be distracting him while Chuck was in danger, so she turned her attention to Morgan's box.

Morgan found a key and an address written on a card once he opened the box impatiently, he was visibly disappointed for not getting a gadget of his own, but a simple key instead. Maybe Chuck had a whole room of toys locked away for him, Morgan dreamt. Two minutes later, Ellie finally impatiently snapped the man-child out of his day dream, and **ordered** Morgan, to read his letter.

* * *

**_To Morgan,_**

_Dear Morgan,_

_We have been best friends since forever, there was so much to be said, but never needed to be said. You were there for me when my mom left, and again when my dad left, and for that, I am eternally grateful._

_I know you probably read my letters for Ellie, Devon and Bryce as well, and are aware of my new status. You are probably hoping for some gaming consoles, I am sorry, little buddy, I am going to disappoint you this time. Because despite how much I love you, Morgan, it__'s time for you to make something of yourself, you are too good a man to waste your life away as a green shirt in Buy More. And please don__'t tell me you are not smart enough, I have seen what you could do with a computer among other skillsets you have._

_So this is my gift to you, I have enrolled you in a community college, at the moment, I put you down to read Business and Management, but you could change that to something else to study if you wish. I have covered all the cost, all you have to do, is to put the efforts in, I have no doubt you would excel when you put your mind to it._

_All the details are sent to you by email, as an extra incentive, I bought you **the** DeLorean DMC-12, with the plate number, DEMORGAN. You should find a box next to my computer, it contained the address and the key for a storage unit, where the car currently resides. The car key is locked away in a safety deposit box, I will release it to you once you pass your freshman year. So you will have to work for it. _

_Maybe one day, when I do start my company, I will let you run it._

_I know you are going to be amazing,_

_I love you, Little Buddy,_

_Your BFF, Chuck,_

_P.S. Please don__'t think I am replacing you with Bryce, I can never ask for a better friend than you, and I will never replace you with anyone. One can never have too many best friends._

* * *

Morgan was a little disappointed by not getting something to play with this exact moment, but he couldn't argue with Chuck's logic either. No one else ever cared this much about his future, he supposed he would have to follow Chuck's instructions, for now. Still he was ecstatic, when Chuck declared point blank, he wasn't replacing him, Morgan would just have to share Chuck with others.

* * *

**Review Feedback: Again, thank you all for the reviews. I am going to answer some of your questions now, but without giving away too much. I don't want to spoil the surprise now, do I?**

**Firstly, Chuck will be a perfect Officer, he is a leader, not a lone wolf, in that way, Chuck would never be a super spy, even if he does work with the CIA. **

**Secondly, Chuck will meet Sarah soon in the next Chapter, which isn't long after where this chapter left off, and this will be years before the intersect project first reach Chuck.**

**I will write a few chapters about Chuck's life in the Navy, before the inevitable intersect project, they will mostly focus on the many times Chuck crosses path with Sarah as a Naval Officer. As how Chuck and Sarah's relationship develops during these meetings, I haven't decided yet, I am open to suggestions. After I do eventually get on with the intersect project, there will still be flashbacks to Chuck's life in the Navy, mostly for introducing crossover characters.**

**Lastly, with the way I am planning the story, Chuck will carry on using his incredible brain while serving as a naval officer, so yes he would be utilizing his inventive skills, and he would contribute to the country no one else ever could. And to be honest, I have no desire or plan to have Chuck leaving active duty even if he was working on the intersect project. The genre of this story includes family, and guess what, the Navy will become Chuck's family, and we all know Chuck would never leave his family.**


	5. Ch4: Navy Life

**A/N: Sorry for being a little bit late, there was a lot of research to be done with this chapter. You will find the deployment history in this chapter correlates with real Navy Deployments. I did find out the name of CO of each unit, but given most of them are still alive, and I don't want to disrespect and mis-portray them in my story, I didn't use their names. So in summary, the units and dates were historically accurate, only for this chapter, the people in it are purely fictitious. Enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 4 - Navy Life**

**USS Abraham Lincoln,  
Fremantle, Western Australia,  
0535 (UTC+8),  
December 25, 2002**

Lieutenant Junior Grade Chuck "Einstein" Bartowski was lying in his bunk, looking at a picture of his family, he missed his family. Chuck loved everything about the Navy, it was like joining a big family, but he missed the family he left behind, especially in days like today. He had missed Mother's day, he was missing Christmas, and he was going to miss New Year's Eve.

With the phone banks on the ship, he could call home, but there wasn't enough phones, so Chuck wanted to let everyone else use it first. Maybe he could get permission from the squadron commander, to allow the rest of the squadron to call home, using his 'satellite relay watch'. Yep, he would see the squadron commander in an hour or so, the Commander wouldn't be up yet.

Chuck looked back this past year, to say it was hectic was putting it mildly. 6 weeks into OCS, he did an amplitude test for flight school, when he came back from his last field exercise two weeks later, he was informed, that he got fast tracked for flight school. He was rushed through the rest of the theory course, a week later, he was on his way to join one of the first groups of Navy aviators, to be trained to fly the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornets. Chuck did manage to get a day off to graduate this time though, and he was glad to be able to see his family during his commissioning ceremony.

Not surprisingly, Chuck graduated as top of his OCS class. There were only a couple of people who beat his physical fitness score, clearly, his hard work in the past 6 months had paid off. During OCS, he also picked up Aikido and Krav Maga from his classmates, while carrying on improving the styles he was already competent with. Chuck had also thoroughly read and analysed every word of a translated version of 'Art of War' written by Sun Tzu, he knew it would be useful one day.

When he arrived at flight school, the other students had already started on that particular airframe 2 months ago, but Chuck was a fast learner, he caught up with everyone by the end of the next two months, learned everything about the aircraft like the back of his hand. Chuck was fast tracked again, and finished flight school by mid-July, so he could fill a spot in Strike Fighter Squadron 115 (VFA-115) the "Eagles", for Super Hornets' first operational tour in the US Navy. By then he had already made two upgrades to his F/A-18E Super Hornet, one on the radar system, to increase sensitivity; the other on the targeting system, making lock on much easier. Needless to say, the Commanding Officer of the flight school was very impressed, and encouraged him to send his design specifications off to Boeing. Chuck did as he was told after getting the patent, and signed the contract for an initial licensing fee of 20 million (they offered 50 million), and 25% of the profit for royalties. Not long after signing the contract, he was deployed with the Eagles along with the rest of Carrier Air Wing 14 (CVW 14), including Helicopter Combat Support Squadron 5 (HC-5), the "Providers", and left Naval Station Everett aboard USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) aircraft carrier.

USS Abraham Lincoln didn't reach the Persian Gulf to join Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Southern Watch until mid-September, during the journey there, Chuck had first bonded with the rest of his squadron, having been through a frat house really helped. He discovered that, many of the enlisted men in his squadron, like him, joined up because of the 9/11 attack, and some of them dropped out of college, to enlist in the Navy. So Chuck spent some extra time with them, helping them to devise a plan to earn the credits needed for them to graduate without leaving the Navy. For Chuck, helping people came naturally, he got hold of all their study materials on his laptop with some hacking during the port visits, while the rest of the ship were enjoying the Hawaii beach or getting drunk to blow off some steams. Chuck studied those materials himself first, and helped his 'students' through them after. Needless to say, the unit cohesion within the squadron was never better, eventually, the other Junior Officers joined the help as well.

The 'Bartowski Class' started with the few guys in the Eagles, later, as word spreads, men from the Providers and the rest of Carrier Air Wing 14 joined in as well. By mid-December, two of his best 'students' had received their diploma through the mail.

No one on the ship saw 'Bartowski Class' as an arrogant power move though, fellow officers as well as the sailors could tell helping people genuinely make Chuck happy. Not only that, Chuck was humble, he would ask about anything he didn't understand and he was interested in, and Chuck was interested in **everything**. He was like a kid on Christmas, Chuck had visited every part of the ship that was not restricted, asked questions from workings of the Sikorsky MH-60 S Knighthawk helicopters flew by the Providers to the garbage disposal system in the kitchen. When he saw an improvement that can be made, he would make a note of it, and start to design the improvement on his laptop. The Captain of the ship had already allowed him to upgrade the ship's radar system after hearing his tales of upgrading the radar system of his fighter jet.

Even with all these things going on, Chuck kept up with his physical training. He still practiced all the styles of martial arts he had learned, in addition, he was learning new fighting styles from the SEALs stationed on board. It was a platoon of sixteen hardened warriors led by Lieutenant Steve McGarrett, Chuck had developed a special bond with the platoon, but that was a story for another day.

The SEALs started to teach Chuck everything they know that can be taught on an aircraft carrier, from new fighting styles, to fire arms handling, and Chuck loved learning from them. He looked up to these warriors, as they were the ones willingly jumping into firefights, while he was flying over the battle, not that it wasn't dangerous at all for Chuck, he just felt these men were so much braver than he was. When the SEALs were having problems with their equipment, naturally, they came to Chuck first. Chuck had redesigned their communication systems, which were now much easier to operate, more secure with a much better range. The men were very grateful for the upgrade, they knew the improved radios had saved their butts a number of times already.

* * *

**USS Abraham Lincoln,**  
**Fremantle, Western Australia,  
0800 (UTC+8),  
December 26, 2002**

Commander Carl Hogan, CO of VFA-115 got back into his office, shaking his head. Bartowski had done it again, he was like the annoying problem child in kindergarten you couldn't help but love, and CDR Hogan was sure he wasn't alone in this. Everyone in the squadron liked him, everyone in the air wing liked him, the SEALs on board treated him like one of their own, hell, even the Marines on board were polite when LTJG Bartowski showed up. Captain Cardwell was convinced Bartowski would be the youngest Navy officer to get a star on his collar one day.

CDR Hogan's paperwork had doubled, or even tripled since Ensign Bartowski had joined the ranks of the Eagles, half of the increase came from all the upgrades "Einstein" kept making for absolutely **everything**; the other half came from promotion applications and college references. Despite of all these extra work, CDR Hogan had never felt better about his job, to be able to facilitate people under his command grow; they were having easier times passing their promotion exams, two of them already got their college diploma, with more on the way, even the Captain of the ship was happy because of the more efficient equipment, and most importantly, he had never seen the men and the women in his unit gotten along better, and all this was all down to one Chuck Bartowski. _Seriously what kind of name was __'Chuck__"? _

Regardless of his ridiculous name, the young man was a damn fine pilot, he wasn't sure he and the CAG themselves could handle that bird like "Einstein" could, he didn't even know the Super Hornet was even designed to do some of the manoeuvres "Einstein" put his bird through. On top of that, the curious young officer had been learning how to fly the Knighthawk from Lieutenant Commander Matthew Dalton from HC-5, "Einstein" had co-piloted LCDR Dalton's bird for several missions, when his usual co-pilot Lieutenant Nicola Granger was in sick bay. His last mission as co-pilot in a Knighthawk didn't go well, but that was a long story. In the end, they lost a chopper, Bartowski had saved Dalton's life, Dalton was sent home, expecting a full recovery and "Einstein" had been pulling additional duty, to pilot the replacement Knighthawk with LT Granger as co-pilot ever since. According to the Commanding Officer of the Providers, CDR Martin Dukes, "Einstein" was as a good pilot in a Knighthawk as he was in his Super Hornet.

Yesterday, the young officer had requested permission for the rest the squadron, to make secure calls to their loved ones, using a device he had designed. As the commander walked past his unit during breakfast, he could tell their morale had improved significantly, once again, CDR Hogan marvelled at LTJG Bartowski's ability to bring the unit together, giving him an earlier promotion was definitely one of the commander's smart decisions. In fact, CDR Hogan felt like he could learn something from the junior officer, he decided to speak to the CAG, and see if he could get the rest of the Air Wing permission to call home, using Bartowski's little device. Given the time zone difference, it would still be Christmas day back home.

* * *

**USS Abraham Lincoln,  
Great Australian Bight,  
0755 (UTC+9),  
January 1, 2003**

He had gotten word from Washington about an hour ago, USS Abraham Lincoln was turning around, she was order back to redeploy for the Arabian Gulf to support Operation Southern Watch. Captain Jack Cardwell only took command of the ship 2 months ago, already, he had to bear bad news to the 5000 men and women under his command. He needed to think of a way to boost the morale after this turn of event. The CO of Air Wing had told him about LTJG Bartowski's involvement in setting up secure calls for the entirety of the Air Wing, with his permission and access to the combat direction centre, CAPT Cardwell was sure the young lad could do much more. So he had called for LTJG Bartowski for a meet at 0800.

0800 on the dot, there was a knock on his door, LTJG Bartowski's voice came from the other side, "Lieutenant Junior Grade Bartowski, reporting as ordered, Sir."

"Enter, Lieutenant." The older man replied.

Chuck marched in professionally, and saluted, to which the Captain returned. "At ease, Lieutenant, take a seat."

"Thank you, Sir." Chuck replied politely and took a seat. Chuck wasn't sure what this was about, but he wasn't too worried, unless the Captain didn't approve of him giving half of the ship secure satellite connection to call home. And what do you know, the next sentence came out of the Captain confirmed Chuck's suspicion.

The older man liked the kid, he was clearly a genius, physically fit with good reflexes, a natural born leader; yet he was so humble, never afraid to ask questions, always seek to help others without being asked, Chuck was the kind of leader who brings the best out of others. But just because the man liked the kid, it didn't mean he wasn't going to enjoy making him squirm a bit. "So," The Captain paused for effect. "I heard you accessed a secure satellite feed, and allowed people under your command to exploit it to make personal calls." The Captain watched carefully for the young man's reaction.

Now Chuck knew he was in trouble, and this wasn't giving his CO more paper work trouble, this was real trouble that could lead to a conviction in Court Martial. The watch he designed, it would hack in any satellite in range, he should have thought that in all probability, some of the satellites were military, and he could be charged with treason if found out. His sister would be devastated if he was sent to jail. But the Captain had not mentioned that part yet, maybe he didn't know the details, and Chuck wasn't going to volunteer the information that he hacked into secure government satellites. Chuck wasn't going to throw anyone else under the bus either, so he did what any good officer would do, he sat up straight and replied with an air of confidence he didn't feel.

"Yes, Sir. I take full responsibility for that action, there wasn't enough phones in the phone banks for everyone to call home, so I decided to help out as much as I could. In essence, I allowed them 8 hours access, of a number of secure satellite phones to call their loved ones. They were acting under instructions, **my** instructions, thus, the responsibilities of any wrong doing is mine and mine alone. With respect, Sir, my action indirectly freed up more phones in the phone banks, and allowed more sailors to call home for Christmas, despite the trouble I am in, I would make the same choices again in a heartbeat, Sir." Chuck finished passionately.

Captain Cardwell was impressed to say the least, he wasn't expecting a full speech. The young officer in front of him had transitioned from being nervous to confident in matter of seconds, under his scrutiny; and delivered a concise speech, taking full responsibility as a good leader should, defended his actions, and not incriminating himself or anyone else any further in the process. Yes, he knew the young man in front of him would sit with the Joint Chiefs one day, if he didn't get himself into too much trouble first, that was.

To Chuck's surprise, the Captain relaxed his posture and smiled, "Relax, Chuck. You are not in any trouble."

This was the first time CAPT Cardwell had called him 'Chuck', Chuck was puzzled, nonetheless, he let out of a breathe he didn't know he was holding, and tentatively asked, "Sir?"

"I know you followed protocol, and asked permission from your immediate superior first, it was a good thing you did, I could tell the entire air group's morale had been improved. So no, you are not in trouble at all. As a matter of fact, I am in need of your unique skills. As you probably just heard, we were just ordered to be redeployed to Arabian Gulf, the sailors are not going to be happy. I am thinking for a way to boost their morale somewhat, and calling home seemed to do the trick for the Air Wing, so why not for the whole ship. Are you following me, Lieutenant?"

Chuck didn't miss a beat, and replied, "I think so, Sir. You want me to give everyone on the ship the same access I gave to the Air Wing."

CAPT Cardwell smiled, "You certainly catch on fast, don't you? Yes, that's precisely my intention. I figured with my permission, and the access of the combat direction centre, you would have no problem setting that up."

Chuck's inside was bursting with excitement he could barely contain, asked incredulously, "You are giving me access to the CDC, Sir?"

CAPT Cardwell could literally see the young officer's eyes lit up at his mention of the combat direction centre, it contained the most classified and advanced technologies on the ship. "Yes, Lieutenant, I have upgraded your clearance, you now have access to the CDC for the remainder of this deployment. For now, just do your magic, give them 8 hours of access, and get it done as soon as you can, so I can deliver the good news for once. Dismissed." CAPT Cardwell knew what Chuck did to get access to secure satellite feed was probably illegal, he didn't ask, he was pretty sure this was one of those times he was better off not knowing.

His order was clear, so Chuck replied, "Aye, Aye, Sir." He stood up to attention, saluted at the Captain, who returned the gesture, and Chuck left the Captain's quarter.

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**USS Abraham Lincoln,  
Arabian Gulf,  
0800 (UTC+3),  
March 20, 2003**

Invasion of Iraq had begun, VFA-115 along with VFA-113 were tasked with taking out of enemy air defence, focusing on surface-to-air missiles, in order to achieve air superiority. They had accomplished their mission within the first hour, and had been patrolling in the sky to provide over watch. "Einstein" and his wingman had just landed back on the Lincoln for refuelling, and were grounded until further tasking.

Chuck had been especially busy since New Year, after that 'favour' he did for the Captain, he became a celebrity on the ship, Chuck wasn't sure if he enjoyed his new found fame, he was never the type to boost. But LTJG Bartowski was happy that more people came to him for help, mostly with their promotion exams, among other thing, either way, Chuck was always happy to help.

Since his security clearance had been upgraded, Chuck was given access to all areas of the ship, but a _Nimitz_-class aircraft carrier is enormous, Chuck was still studying the island, where CDC was located. Granted, Chuck didn't really have much time for himself, he was pulling two sets of duties and more. Chuck had been flying for the Eagles as well as the Providers; every now and then, he would also take a walk across the Afghan deserts with LT McGarrett and his men, on reconnaissance missions to select, plant or paint air-strike targets, the young pilot had participated in a number of fire-fights already.

Despite of the amount work he was doing, Chuck was having the time of his life, and he thought life couldn't get any better than college, clearly he was mistaken.

As he was taking his flight suit off, one of his helicopter crew, Petty Officer Second Class Gary Stark ran into the locker room, and passed him his body armour, "Sir, we are being scrambled, I will explain on the way. You are going to need your weapons, sir."

"Thank you, Petty Officer Stark, get the chopper ready, tell Lieutenant Granger I will be there in 3, and we'll lift off in 5." Chuck immediately switched on his mission mode.

"Aye, Aye, Sir."

LTJG Bartowski clipped on his body armour, grabbed his M4 carbine and Beretta M9, checked them, and sprinted towards his Knighthawk.

Chuck secured himself in the cockpit, and took off with 2 other choppers. As the three Knighthawks flew towards Iraqi coastline, LTJG Bartowski asked his co-pilot, "What's the situation, Lieutenant."

LT Granger liked her new partner, she would normally have protested to be the co-pilot for someone with rank junior to her, but not with Chuck. He had always treated her with respect, valued her opinion and even offered to switch places with her numerous time. She did agree a number of times on exercises, but she would always jump back to the co-pilot seat if they were flying into a war-zone. LT Granger knew Chuck was a much better pilot, she felt more assured that they would get back to the Lincoln in one piece if Chuck were to fly the chopper.

LT Granger found Chuck extremely attractive as well, smart, tall, muscular and kind, what wasn't to like, if she wasn't engaged already, the attractive brunette would have made her move, Navy guidelines be damned. But if she were honest to herself, she wasn't sure she would succeed if she did try. She knew she wasn't the only female officer on board who were attracted to Chuck, she could literally see the predatory gleams in some of their eyes, but Chuck was oblivious, and seemed never to be interested in anything more than friendship, the rumour was, someone broke his heart back in college, dumped him on the day he was going to propose. _Stupid Skank._ LT Granger thought, who could be so stupid to throw away a man like that. LT Granger had long decided to build a solid friendship with her partner, she had learned from others and from her own experience, Chuck Bartowski's friendship was worth more than anything money could buy, he would go hell and back for his friends, his family.

LT Granger answered the pilot's question concisely, "We still don't have all the information, but here are the basics. A VIP from our government wasn't able to leave the country before the invasion begins, his security team had extracted him from Baghdad to Basra International Airport, hoping to catch a ride there. However, Iraqi military had taken over the airport, the group were heading south towards Kuwait border when they were engaged, they requested extraction, and we were the only unit available for tasking… Wait one…, new information had arrived, the VIP is a US Senator, protected by a team of six Secret Service agents, Agent in Charge is David Kane."

LT Granger had just finished her SitRep, when the radio came online, "Blue Leader to Blue Two and Einstein, radio check over." "This is Blue two, good copy, over." Chuck waited for his turn and answered, "Einstein to Blue Leader, read you loud and clear, over."

"Good Copy, this is the plan. Einstein is responsible for the extraction of the VIP and his security team, while Blue Two and I will be providing cover fire. ROE, you are cleared to engage anyone wearing Iraqi military uniform and anyone else firing at friendlies, I say again, you are cleared to engage anyone wearing Iraqi military uniform and anyone else firing at friendlies. Any questions? Over."

"Blue Two to Blue Leader, loud and clear, out."

"Einstein to Blue Leader, roger that, out."

As the three choppers approached the extraction site, Chuck saw a group of people taking fire from all sides, he shook his head, thinking, _Recipe for friendly fire._ Chuck saw the man who looked like the VIP returning fire with a pistol, and what he saw next dazed him.

Four enemy personal flanked them, an agent suddenly jumped out from cover, engaged all four men who were armed with AK type weapons, with a knife. From this distance, Chuck couldn't make out the face, but the agent was clearly female, with long blonde hair, fierce, but graceful movements, Chuck was enchanted by the tall blonde female agent with scary knife skills. The blonde made short work of the 4 men, and saw two more enemy approaching from another angle, who were in the process of aiming their weapon at the back of her charge's head. Chuck saw her threw her knife dead centre into the throat of one of the men, clearly running out of options, she ran towards the Senator.

Chuck shook himself out of his daze, and realised what the blonde agent was about to do, she was clearly going to jump in front of the bullet, or push the Senator out of the bullet trajectory while putting herself in it. Chuck acted out of instinct, and landed his chopper between the Senator and the lone enemy who was ready to take the shot.

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**Review Feedback: Again, thank you for all your lovely reviews, I really appreciate them. Guess who the blonde agent was? Don't answer, that was rhetorical.**

**To answer some questions, as you can see, I left it quite open, Chuck did his Subliminal Imaging Test which wasn't seen by Fleming. Given how far Chuck progressed, it should be clear that he would be involved in the intelligence community somehow.**

**Thank you, Nomadic Nerd, for spotting a mistake. When Red Leader was giving out ROE, I meant Iraqi military. For those of you don't know, ROE stand for rules of engagement.**


	6. Ch 5: First Contact

**A/N:Hey guys, sorry for the delay, I wanted to get this chapter right, since it's their first meeting. Hope you enjoy this.**

**Again thank you for all your lovely reviews.**

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**Chapter 5 - First Contact**

**20 miles south of Basra International Airport, Iraq,  
0820 (UTC+3),  
March 20, 2003**

It had been half an hour since they called for extraction, Secret Service Agent Sarah Walker wasn't sure she would be getting out of this in one piece, regardless, she had a job to do, a mission to complete, and she would die trying to complete her mission.

To everyone else in the security detail and the Senator himself, Sarah Walker was a rookie Secret Service agent on her first assignment, in reality, Sarah Walker didn't exist, he real identity had been buried so long ago, she could barely remember her own real name. Then again, that name was a no body, it was Sarah Walker who graduated from Harvard University with a major in Economics and a minor in Business and Management in 2002; it was Sarah Walker who graduated from 'the Farm' in barely 4 months, broken every record in the 'spy' academy; and it was Sarah Walker who was on her way towards a promising career in the Central Intelligence Agency.

Agent Walker's mentor, Langston Graham had assigned her to the Secret Service for a year, the agent in her didn't question his orders, and the girl in her trusted in his judgement, after all, he was the one who gave her a second chance, when no-one else would, or so she thought.

At the moment, Agent Walker was part of the security detail protecting Senator William Davidson, the Senator could be a real pain in the butt for the Secret Service agents, as he kept ignoring security protocols. But Agent Walker liked him, she respected what he was trying to do. The President had already announced for the impending invasion, but the Senator still tried to prevent the inevitable bloodshed of the oncoming war, in vain.

Agent Walker had just ran out of ammunition, for she had given her spare weapon to the Senator, she was glad to see the Senator could handle himself well in a combat situation, and was putting her weapon to a good use. So as a last resort, Agent Walker retrieved her knife, and waited for the 4 men trying to flank the Senator's position. This was when she heard the incoming helicopters, she could tell from the sound they were of Blackhawk variants, this gave her hope. With that new hope, she jumped out, and took care of the 4 men with a well-placed ambush.

As she took out the last of the 4 Iraqi soldiers, out of the corner of her eye, she saw two more enemy taking aim at the Senator, she didn't have time to pick up the AKs dropped by the 4 men, and Agent Walker was not about to fail a mission and let the Senator get killed under her watch. Agent Walker thought fast on her feet, threw her knife towards one of the men, killing him instantly and ran towards the Senator, hoping to push him out of the way in time, or at least shield him with her own body. All other senses faded away as she focused purely on the Senator, she tackled him to the ground, stayed on top of him while waiting for the inevitable bullet impact that would probably take her life. At least, her last act was an honourable one. But the bullets never came, she swore she had heard a magazine being emptied from an AK type weapon, from the direction she had last seen the lone enemy, but none of the bullets even landed close to her. Agent Walker turned around, and saw one of the helicopter landed directly between her and the lone enemy. Whoever the pilot was, he had just saved her life.

LTJG Bartowski made sure the chopper landed with the enemy at the helicopter's 2 o'clock position, as a protective instinct towards his co-pilot and crew members. The lone enemy unleashed a whole magazine of his Zastava M80 (an AK variant), luckily, its 5.56mm ammunition didn't penetrate the helicopter, Chuck opened the door on his side straight after the enemy emptied his magazine, knowing he had some time before the enemy could reload his weapon. Chuck pulled out his Beretta M9, and fired 3 rounds, 2 in the centre mass, and 1 in the head, killing the enemy with precision.

Chuck closed the door, turned around, and signalled one of the crew to get the VIP and his protective detail on board, and carried on to scan the area, looking out for hostiles. A minute later, the VIP and his protective detail were seated and secured under the covering fire of the two other helicopters.

Just as he was about to lift off, Chuck saw an enemy vehicle with mounted RPK light machine gun to his 1 o'clock, turning its attention towards his bird. He didn't have much time to react, so he shouted a target indication to PO2 Stark, "Enemy vehicle at 1'clock!" while trying to shield LT Granger with his own body by enveloping her under his protective arms. PO2 Stark followed the young pilot's target indication, and fired the mounted .50 Calibre GAU-16/A machine gun. The enemy vehicle was shredded within seconds, but not before 5 rounds escaped the mounted RPK. The glass window of the MH-60 S might be able to withstand 5.56 mm rounds, but 7.62 mm bullets fired from a mounted RPK were a challenge. Out of the 5 bullets from the RPK, first one left a crack on the front right window, second one shattered the glass and showered the pilot and co-pilots area with glass shards, Chuck's broad shoulder and back had shielded any of the shards from his co-pilot. The second bullet also grazed Chuck's shoulder, and the third impacted on the back of his body armour in full force. The last two bullets flew wild.

After hearing an explosion from the direction of the enemy vehicle, Chuck lifted his head up, and examined his co-pilot, ignoring the pain from the bullet impact and some burning sensations he could feel over his right arm, which he presumed to be caused by being showered with glass. He asked with concern written all over his face, "Are you alright, Lieutenant?"

LT Granger could not believe Chuck was asking her if she was alright, she had felt the bullet impact on Chuck, and she could see blood all over Chuck's right arm, and here he was, not caring about any of that, and asking if she was alright. LT Granger was a strong woman, she didn't want to be protected by Alpha male types, but Chuck was different, she knew Chuck didn't shield her because she was a woman, Chuck did it because she was his friend, and she had to admit to herself, it felt good to have a friend like Chuck Bartowski. She gave him a small nod, before she could say anything else, the radio cracked to life. "Blue Leader to Einstein, are you alright? Status report, over."

Chuck seeing his co-pilot unharmed, and hearing the radio requesting for report, he snapped back from protective mode to mission mode. He knew he had to get out of the war zone as soon as possible. He answered back while doing a quick check on his chopper's status, "This is Einstein, package on board, no injuries to crew," seeing his bird was still flight capable, he continued while lifting off, "Minimal damage to the chopper, we are heading back, over."

"This is Blue Leader, good copy, heading back to Homebase, wedge formation, I will take point, Blue Two, watch over Einstein, make sure he stays with the pack. Over."

"Blue Two to Blue Leader, Roger that, out."

"Einstein to Blue Leader, Roger, Out."

In the passenger cabin, the Senator was still coming down from the adrenaline high, it had been a while since his last combat action. Sarah observed the whole scene silently, this was the pilot who just saved her life, and it looked like he was ready to sacrifice his own for the co-pilot. From the concerned voice of the pilot asking if the co-pilot was alright, Sarah wouldn't be surprised if the pilot and the co-pilot were an item. She felt a strange sensation came over her as she thought sadly, nobody ever cared for her that much. Sarah Walker mulled over the strange and foreign sensation she was feeling, trying to figure out what it was while observing the pilot's interaction with the co-pilot.

At the front, LT Granger saw that they were in the clear, and decided now it was time to take care of her partner. "Blue Three Alpha to Homebase, message, over."

"This is Homebase, send, over."

"Have the Med-team on standby, Einstein needs medical attention. Over."

"This is Homebase, Med-team will be on top-side for your arrival, out."

As soon as the transmission was cut, the radio sounded off again.

"Blue Leader to Einstein, you reported there was no injury on board, why did Blue Three Alpha just requested a med-team for you, over?" The voice sounded much more urgent than before.

Chuck replied with an almost childish whiny noise. "This is Einstein, I am fine, the Lieutenant is just over reacting, I don't need to see the doc, over."

"Blue Three Alpha to Blue Leader, I will handle this, out." LT Granger cut in furiously and turned to Chuck with a hard glare, causing Chuck to gulp involuntarily, she reminded Chuck so much of Ellie at the moment.

"Lieutenant **Junior Grade** Bartowski," LT Granger spat out condescendingly, emphasising on 'Junior Grade'. "I am the ranking officer here, you will get that medical attention as soon as you land this bird. That is an order, have you got that?"

_Yep, she is full on Mama Bear Ellie mode, _thought Chuck with a cringe, he yelped, "Yes, Ma'am."

Seeing that she had won the battle, the brunette softened her voice, said, "Chuck, you just took a bullet in your ballistic plate, and your right arm is bleeding all over the place. You got all that from shielding me, will you please just let me take care of you this once, if only just so I can sleep peacefully tonight?" Nicola knew this would work, Chuck always places everyone else's needs before his own, Chuck would stand guard outside her berth area all night, if she let him think it would help her sleep better, let alone a visit to the doctors.

Chuck immediately caved hearing her like that, "Ok, Nicola, I will check in with the doc the moment we land this bird, I will be fine, promise." Chuck said softly. The beautiful brunette brought up memories of Jill, now he thought about it, Jill had never shown this much concern for him. Before he could stop himself, he looked at his co-pilot with a hint of sadness, but said in an utterly sincere voice, "I hope your fiancée knows how lucky he is."

Nicola smiled at Chuck gratefully, before turning away, she wanted to hurt the stupid skunk who broke Chuck's heart so badly, but more than that, she wished so much that she could find a way to mend her partner's broken heart.

The strange sensation she was feeling had amplified as Sarah Walker witnessed the care, the pilot, LTJG Chuck "Einstein" Bartowski she had gathered from their conversation, and the co-pilot, Nicola, had shown towards each other. Before she could figure out what the strange sensation was, it disappeared as she learned the co-pilot had a fiancée, and they were not a couple. Sarah Walker was puzzled, it couldn't be jealousy, could it? She couldn't be jealous because of a man she hadn't even met properly yet, could she? Before she could mull it over any further, Sarah heard that same concerned voice again, "Are you guys alright?"

The coastline was already well behind them when Chuck turned around and asked this question, concerned about his "package", especially about the tall blonde female agent with scary knife skills. The Senator answered first, liking this young pilot already from the bravery he had shown so far, "We are fine, thank you for getting us out, son."

Chuck answered back sincerely, "Just doing our job, Sir."

Agent-in-Charge Kane grunted his thanks without much emotion.

Chuck was only going to sneak a glance at the blonde agent and turn around immediately, but she looked up at that exact moment and caught him red-handed when he did so. Brown connected with blue, something sparkled in both the agent and the pilot's hearts. This was the moment Chuck Bartowski and Sarah Walker met for the first time, and everything else faded away.

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**Arabian Gulf,  
0840 (UTC+3),  
March 20, 2003**

Neither of them knew how long they have been staring at each other, and neither could pull their gaze away either. The moment they made eye contact, Chuck and Sarah were drawn to each other. The stare contest continued for God-knew how long, they were oblivious to everyone else on board; and everyone else on the chopper were oblivious to the instant connection established between the two, everyone else, well everyone except for the Senator and LT Nicola Granger.

The Senator decided to not interfere, and kept to himself. LT Granger couldn't do that, after all, Chuck still had control over the chopper. But since they were in the clear with nothing but sea for miles, LT Granger decided to observe her partner's expression for a while before she would speak up. This was the first time LT Granger saw LTJG Bartowski speechless, he was always babbling off about everything, she could tell from Chuck's expression that he was drawn to this blonde agent. LT Granger took a look at the blonde agent, and damn, Chuck sure knew how to pick them, for she was definitely pretty. And from her expression, LT Granger could tell the blonde was drawn to Chuck as well. _Maybe there is still hope for Chuck yet._ LT Granger thought this might just be her chance, her chance to help her partner to mend his broken heart. In her mind, LT Granger was already forming strategies in setting these two up, from the silence between those two, they clearly needed the help, LT Granger decided.

LT Granger was brought out of her musing when the radio came on again. "Blue Two to Einstein, Status report, over."

…

"Einstein, do you copy, over."

…

"Blue Two to Einstein, Radio check over."

Seeing Chuck wasn't going to answer, LT Granger decided it was about time to interrupt his moment with the blonde, she nudged him and called out, "Lieutenant! … Lieutenant! … CHUCK!"

"… Einstein, Radio check, over. … nant! … CHUCK!" The outside world finally faded in, and only then, had Chuck realised he had been staring at the female agent for God knew how long, he turned bright red and snapped his head back to the front, so fast it was surprising he didn't break anything. He was too embarrassed to look back again, and he could tell from the heat on his cheek how red he was, he stammered back into the mic, "Erm… This is Einstein. … say again, over?"

"Einstein, this is Blue Two, you ok up there? Your bird seemed wobbly for a while. Over."

"No problems here, I was just dazzled for a bit …" Chuck rattled his brain for some plausible explanation, but it seemed that his brain had shut down during that stare contest he had just participated with the blonde angel, and still had not finished rebooting yett. "By a glare, … Yeah, something caught my eye," _Or someone, _Chuck added to himself. He decided it was time to cut the babbling. "All's good up here now, see you back at Homebase, Einstein out."

Chuck turned to look at his co-pilot, and saw a smug smirk on LT Granger's face, she raised her eyebrow, and asked, dripping with sarcasm. "Something caught your eye, Lieutenant? You were definitely **dazzled**, that was for sure!"

Chuck was turning into a tomato, he was not going to dignify that with a response, he knew he would only dig a deeper hole for himself, so he just focused on flying the chopper the rest of the way, and trying, **in vain**, to not think about the **beautiful**, tall, blonde female agent with crazy knife skills sitting in his chopper.

But she was just so beautiful, especially her sapphire blue eyes, they were so bright Chuck couldn't help but be drawn and fall into them. She was clearly a strong woman, make that a very strong woman with ninja skills, and Chuck found that both extremely scary yet sexy at the same time. Chuck smiled at that thought, but his smile faltered when he realised, a woman like that couldn't possibly be interested in him, he didn't even know her name.

Unbeknownst to either of them, Sarah Walker, who was sitting at the back in the passenger cabin, was having similar thoughts about one Chuck Bartowski. Oh his eyes, after seeing him jumping into the line of fire twice to save someone else, Sarah was expecting to see the eyes of a battle-hardened warrior with a thousand-mile-stare, instead, she found herself facing a young man with the warmest eyes she had ever seen, shining with concern and sincerity. When his eyes found hers, she couldn't help but dive into his chocolate brown eyes. They were open and honest, she felt like she could see the bottom of his soul, and it didn't take her too long to realise the concern inside his eyes were gone, in place, there was awe; not the making her skin crawl kind of leering awe, but the way, every girl dreamt about being looked at awe. Sarah the girl felt self-conscious, she didn't know what she did to deserve to be looked at like that.

When the pilot finally turned back in embarrassment, Sarah almost smiled at how she could make the brave pilot blush, but she had, instantly, missed his eyes and the way those eyes were looking at her, she wished, and hoped he would look at her that way forever, but would he if he ever find out what she did when she was younger? How would he look at her then? Sarah thought sadly. Maybe if he never got to know her, she would always have this memory, **and only** this memory of how he was looking at her moments ago.

Just then, Sarah caught those words coming from the stammering pilot, "dazzled", "something caught my eye". Sarah realised he was referring to her, O God, he was so adorable when he babbled with embarrassment. Sarah didn't know how one person could do all the brave things she had seen him do in the past 20 minutes, and still able to babble incessantly like that from embarrassment, especially when that embarrassment came from being caught staring at a pretty girl, her. To Sarah, LTJG Chuck "Einstein" Bartowski was such an enigma, not getting to know him was no longer an option, she would just have to carefully not to reveal to him about anything that she didn't want him to know, she was a spy after all, how hard could it be?

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**A/N: So here it is, I don't plan on any major angst plots, but a number of little ones that Chuck and Sarah could work through within one or two chapters. Like I said, I didn't want to change any of their character history pre-9/11, hence the insecurities on both ends. As you can see, Sarah is less closed off than she is at the beginning of the show, this is because she hadn't gone through all those missions in the CIA yet. So hopefully now that she met Chuck earlier in her life, this time would be different.**

**Thank you Arya's prayers for pointing out a rather important mistake, it should be fixed now. :)**


	7. Ch 6: Op Getting to Know Bartowski

**A/N: This chapter focuses on Sarah's observation of Chuck. I had some trouble writing this chapter, I wanted to get Chuck just right, let me know what you think, but most importantly, enjoy! **

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**Chapter 6 - Operation Getting to Know Bartowski**

**USS Abraham Lincoln,  
Arabian Gulf,  
0900 (UTC+3),  
March 20, 2003**

They had landed on the carrier not 10 minutes ago, the medics snatched LTJG Bartowski away before he could undo his harness properly. Sarah wasn't worried, she could see the bullet hit him dead on his ballistic plate, and did not penetrate; and none of the young officer's other injuries were life threatening. But Sarah did see how close the bullet came to claim the young man's life, four inches higher, the bullet would have hit him directly between his body armour and flight helmet. Sarah felt her heart tighten at the thought of that, Sarah was puzzled at her own reaction.

This was her first time on an aircraft carrier, and Sarah could not believe that her first experience of an aircraft carrier was a _Nimitz_-Class super-carrier, Sarah Walker was definitely impressed. She had gotten her pilot license while she was in "the Farm", and she could say she was a very good pilot and could fly numerous airframes. But seeing the planes taking off and landing on an aircraft carrier, the thoughts of doing that actually terrified, and thrilled her at the same time.

The Senator was greeted by the ship's Captain, whom, to Sarah's surprise, checked on LTJG Bartowski personally first. He then left with the Senator and half of the protection detail, now she was left with the lead agent, Kane, and another agent, Smith, with nothing to do. LTJG Bartowski's co-pilot came over and offered them a short tour of USS Abraham Lincoln, while the rest of the crew started checking over the chopper for damage.

LT Granger got them off top deck as soon as she could, considering how dangerous that place was, especially with the invasion still going on. They made short introductions and started the tour. When they arrived at the hanger, LT Granger introduced them to the various airframes on board the aircraft carrier, including Grumman C-2 Greyhounds used for carrier onboard delivery; the tactical airborne early warning aircraft, Northrop Grumman E-2C Hawkeyes; Sikorsky MH-60 S Knighhawk helicopters, like the one they just flew on board with; and last but not least, the twin-engine multirole fighter aircraft, F/A-18E Super Hornets.

Sarah couldn't help but admire the well-designed aircrafts, she was giddy with excitement as she thought about the feeling of flying in one of these beauties at supersonic speed. That was when she noticed, under the canopy of one of the Super Hornets, printed 'LTJG Charles "Einstein" Bartowski'. She couldn't stop herself, and asked the Lieutenant, "Lieutenant Granger, I thought the pilot who flew us in was Lieutenant Bartowski, why is his name printed on that Super Hornet?"

LT Granger was glad the blonde agent asked her that question, she was hoping Agent Walker would notice Chuck's name, which was why she brought them down to the hanger in the first place. She wanted to make Chuck look good in front of the beautiful blonde, who was clearly interested in him, at the same time, the devious LT Granger wanted to leave out enough detail, keeping the blonde agent intrigued, so her curiosity would drive the blonde to find out more about Chuck, **in person**. LT Granger answered in an as-a-matter-of-fact manner.

"Oh, because she is Lieutenant Bartowski's baby, his second one according to him. And the chopper we just flew in with would be his third baby, but he had insisted she is our baby, it's one of his many ways of telling me that I could pilot her whenever I want. Einstein flies in both airframes, he is one of the best pilots I have ever seen, whether in a Knighthawk, or in the Super Hornets. That's just one of his many attractive traits." She said the last sentence, looking in Sarah's direction.

Sarah saw this and blushed, she tried to cover it by asking another question, "That's quite unusual for a pilot to fly two airframes, especially on one deployment, isn't it?"

LT Granger answered proudly, "It was unheard of, as a matter of fact. It is a rather long story, the short version is, Einstein really lives up to his call sign, he just soaks up everything he wanted to learn like a sponge, he learned how to fly a Knighthawk during this deployment, and was flying it better than everyone onboard not long after. As for the long version, you should ask him yourself if you are so interested." LT Granger finished with a challenge to the blonde agent.

Sarah never responded well to a challenge, she thrived on challenges, so she shot back defiantly. "Maybe I will." LT Granger just smirked at this.

Agent Kane, who had been silent this whole time, was thinking rather unkindly about the pilot who probably saved his life. He had tried to get into Agent Walker's pants since she was assigned to him, without any success, now, out of nowhere, she was suddenly interested in this flyboy, that didn't sit well with the Agent in Charge. He asked rather unkindly, "Did he come up with that call sign himself? His ego must be the size of Texas!"

LT Granger's expression immediately became cold, she shot the lead agent a deathly glare, and replied harshly. "No, you must be confused your own ego with his." She turned to Sarah and said with a softer tone. "Lieutenant Bartowski got the call sign from flight school, he made a few changes to his aircraft, changes that would save lives and gave us more advantages over the enemy, changes that are being upgraded to many aircrafts in the Navy as we speak. His flight school CO gave him "Einstein" as his call sign, and it stuck with him. I never met anyone who was more modest than Lieutenant Bartowski, he does all these amazing things, but always contributes the success to everyone else but himself, and he always takes the blame voluntarily when someone else messed up." LT Granger finished passionately.

Kane couldn't come up with any retorts, just scoffed. Agent Walker, being the observant person she was from her CIA training, saw the sudden change in LT Granger when her obnoxious co-worker insulted Chuck, she could tell, the Lieutenant's protectiveness towards her partner knew no limit, and for some reason, Sarah's gut told her LT Granger wasn't the only one.

There was an obvious tension between the Lieutenant and Kane for the rest of the tour, Sarah was pretty sure the tour was cut shorter than LT Granger had original planned.

* * *

**USS Abraham Lincoln,  
Arabian Gulf,  
1200 (UTC+3),  
March 20, 2003**

Once LT Granger had left them, Sarah spent the rest of her morning wandering around alone, she ended up going back to the hanger, and had been admiring Chu … LTJG Bartowski's, she quickly corrected herself, 'second baby' since then.

After hearing LT Granger talking about LTJG Bartowski, Sarah became more intrigued by the young pilot, a part of her couldn't believe a man like LT Granger described existed, most of the men she had met were full of themselves, especially during her time in "the Farm", hence she wasn't particular popular in "the Farm" among her peers, despite of her good looks, given she could kick the asses of every single male recruit. Apparently, their ego couldn't take the hit from being beaten by a girl. Now, Sarah really wanted to find out If, what LT Granger said about LTJG Bartowski matched up to reality.

Sarah decided to start her new mission, 'Operation Getting to Know Bartowski'. She headed towards the mess hoping to find him there. Just before she left, a thought came to her mind made her gasp. _What it would be like to share a baby with young Lieutenant._ What made Sarah gasp wasn't precisely that thought, rather, it was that she wasn't sure whether she was thinking of a Super Hornet for a baby or an **actual **baby. _What the hell?_ Never once in her life had she thought about children, now she had met a man for less than half a day, she wanted to bare his baby? Sarah wasn't sure what got into her, _it must be the ocean air mixed with jet fuel. _Sarah kept telling herself.

* * *

**USS Abraham Lincoln,  
Arabian Gulf,  
1230 (UTC+3),  
March 20, 2003**

Sarah was sitting in the mess having lunch with her fellow Secret Service agents, including Kane, the other 3 agents who was with the Senator was dismissed and had joined them, as the Senator and the Captain didn't see need for protection while he was on the ship. This morning for Agent Walker was hectic to say the least, now all the chaos had calmed down, Agent Walker was just glad she was able to live to fight another day, and she had to thank Chuck for that. _Chuck, when did he became Chuck? First baby, now Chuck?_ They still had not been formally introduced yet, but the blonde agent could not stop thinking about the pilot with dreamy brown eyes. _And since when did his eyes become __'dreamy__'?_ Sarah scolded herself, she didn't even know 'dreamy' was in her vocabulary.

Sarah's thoughts were interrupted by Agent Kane's cursing, he was still in a bad mood after being put in his place by LT Granger, and now he was taking it out on everybody. He started off with complains about the food, which then escalated to insulting the cooks, then moved on to general insults about the Navy and its sailors. Sarah could see some of the sailors sitting nearby were getting agitated, _this was going to get out of hand_, Sarah thought to herself, but before she could do anything about it, she saw the object of her obsession for the **whole **morning, no wait, she meant her primary mission target, walked into the mess.

This was the first time she saw Chu … LTJG Bartowski without his flight helmet, but Sarah would recognize those eyes everywhere, chocolate brown, warm, open, honest, drea … Sarah stopped herself just in time. She carried on observing the rest of him, trying to not to get drawn into his eyes again. He was wearing his green flight suit. He had an air of confidence about him, the kind that couldn't be mistaken for arrogance. He had a gentle, warm smile that could disarm anyone. His buzz cut was growing out a bit, and the hair on the top of his head was starting to curl, in a way that was giving Sarah the urge to run her fingers through it.

Sarah also noticed how the other sailors and officers reacted to his presence. They all greeted him friendly, the officers would joke and laugh with him; the sailors treated him with respect, but none of them were afraid to approach to talk to him. They really gave off the vibe of being a big happy family to Sarah, she never thought this many men cramped in one ship, even if it was a gigantic ship, could get along this well together.

Sarah saw after LTJG Bartowski got his lunch, he went to sit with a bunch of people not far from her table, she ignored her own disappointment at this, but she wasn't surprised given how embarrassed he became during the flight. She noticed the people he was sitting with were the only ones in the mess wearing Combat Utility Uniforms, Sarah eventually recognised famous 'SEAL Trident' on these men's uniforms. After seeing how they interacted with Chuck, Sarah had given up correcting herself, it wasn't like anyone else could hear her thoughts anyway, she was puzzled, she wondered why these battle-hardened, first-class warriors were treating him like one of their own. She could tell all of them, including the enlisted, were acting brotherly towards Chuck, especially the Lieutenant among the group.

Chuck was having a good time with his brothers, he had become especially close with Steve, ever since that mission when his chopper was shot down, luckily, everyone came out of that one alive. The platoon leader of the SEALs along with his platoon had taught him a lot, and he was still learning from them every day. One of the skills they taught him was situation awareness, which was how as his brothers teased him about taking a bullet, again, Chuck could feel the beautiful agent's eyes on him. He had noticed her watching him, while trying to be discreet, the moment he stepped in the mess, when he did the unconscious once over of the room. He was still too embarrassed for staring at her for a clearly socially unacceptable amount of time during the flight, and even after thinking about the beautiful blonde ninja all morning, Chuck was still too enchanted by her to think up a good apology. Which was why he joined these bunch of lunatics rather than greeting their new guests.

As he carried on chatting to the SEALs while eating his lunch, it wasn't long before Chuck noticed the agitation from some sailors around him. Always wanting to help, Chuck searched to see if there was an obvious reason for their agitation, and he was surprised when this search led his eyes to the table, where all the Secret Service agents was sitting. Chuck realised Agent in Charge Kane was the source of everyone's annoyance, _God must hates me_, Chuck thought. He wasn't ready to face the beautiful blonde yet, but he wasn't about to stand for his family to be insulted either. Chuck got Steve's attention and nodded to Agent Kane's direction, indicating he was going to deal with the situation, Steve gave him an affirmative nod, and signalled to the rest of his platoon after Chuck left for the Secret Service agents' table.

Sarah saw him approaching her table, but realised he was focused on Kane, again pushing down her own disappointment, she wondered what Chuck was going to do.

Chuck went to stand next to Agent Kane with a respectful distance, and Sarah noticed the whole mess had gone quiet except for Kane's insults, everybody was watching Chuck. Chuck started with a calm voice, "Agent Kane?"

Kane noticed the young officer just then, he really didn't like him, wearing his flight suit thinking he was special. "What do you want, flyboy?" He said with disdain without looking up.

If Chuck was surprised by Kane's targeted hostility, he didn't show it, and said in the same calm and confident tone. "The sailors and officers here, myself included, really respect what Secret Service agents, including you guys do every day, risking your life to protect the leaders of our country." Chuck tried to make eye contacts with everyone during this, and he succeeded with the other 5 agents, including the blonde agent, but Agent Kane refused to look at him.

Sarah was happy he finally looked at her, and she could see the honesty in his eyes as he declared his respect for them. This wasn't what Sarah expected, she expected him to go all macho on Kane, she wasn't exactly against the idea, but that would put him down with all the other stereotypical Alpha-males, and Sarah hoped Chuck was above that, he didn't disappoint her this time, in fact, he exceeded her expectations. She thought Chuck was going to try to offer an olive branch to calm the situation, but instead, he praised them with such sincerity, Sarah was stunned.

Chuck carried on while unbeknownst to him and everyone else in the room, Senator Davidson, Captain Cardwell and Commander of the Battlegroup, Rear Admiral Marcus Wainwright walked in and silently started observing the scene. "I would like for you to extend the same courtesy towards our sailors, who also made that choice to serve this great country, just like you did. So, please, Agent Kane, keep your insults to yourself."

Agent Kane had enough of this self-righteous flyboy, he stood up suddenly with a bang, got into Chuck's face, attempting to intimidate him. To both Kane and Sarah's surprise, Chuck stood his ground and didn't even flinch.

At the same time, the other 5 agents stood up as well, not to support their leader, but to back away, none of them liked their arrogant boss, it looked like he was going to get it, and they won't be standing in the way.

If Sarah wasn't already impressed by Chuck's passionate speech, she was definitely impressed by his nerve. She also noticed how when Kane made the sudden move, all 16 men of the SEAL platoon reached for their holstered M11 Sig Sauer P228 9mm pistol, but did not draw. She also saw a number of sailors clenching their fists, not out of anger, but out of protectiveness towards their leader. Agent Walker could tell her hunch about LT Granger being not the only one, who would do anything to protect Chuck, was right, but she didn't expect this coming from a SEAL platoon. _Who is this guy? How is Chuck able to earn the loyalty of all these men and women?_

Kane raised his voice and said, "Listen, you dip-shit, what do you squids know about serving your country? You guys didn't risk your lives like I do every day, you guys didn't sacrifice your lives by walking into a war zone like I did, you hide in a ship that is out of the reach of the battle, so you can shove your self-righteous comments in your ass, and get out of my face before I shut your mouth for you."

Again, Chuck didn't back down, he stood taller, now he was definitely looking down on Agent Kane with his 6'4" well-built frame. He raised his voice and replied with the authoritative voice of a true leader.

"Agent Kane, do not talk about things you do not understand. All you have talked about was yourself, where as we, work as a team. Every sailor, marine and officer has a job to do to protect this country and its ideals, from the Rear Admiral down to the cook, everyone on this ship is an integral part of this Operation."

"Talking about sacrifice, you talked about how **you** walked into a warzone being a sacrifice. But did you even notice your own team member's bravery? As I approached the extraction site, I had a bird eye view of the firefight. Let me ask you, where were you when your agent," He paused and nodded in the blonde's direction, eyes full of admiration. Sarah saw the admiration in Chuck's eyes, and couldn't help but blush while Chuck carried on with an obvious awe in his voice, "ran out of ammunition, but still dispatched 5 men armed with automatic weapons, with a knife? Where were you when your agent, as a last resort, jumped on top of the Senator, ready to make that final sacrifice?" Chuck paused, and looked back towards Agent Kane, "Let me answer that, you were taking cover and keeping your head down, while the Senator himself, the person you were supposed to protect, was returning fire."

"Talking about sacrifice, please do tell me, how many days did you spend in a war zone for your whole life? What was the longest time you were away from the states, where your home, your family and your loved ones are? These men and women standing around you had been away from their home, their family, and their loved ones for the 8 months straight while we are at sea and for God knows how much longer, do you hear them talking about their sacrifices? They made their sacrifice by choosing to do their part for our country over seeing their wives, husbands, parents, and children every day." Chuck took a breath after that part of his passionate speech, composed himself and said in a lower, but firm voice. "You can insult me all you can, Agent Kane, but don't you dare to speak a foul word about the Navy or its people again." With that, Chuck backed away a couple of steps as a precautious measure, and headed towards his brothers, shaking his head, disbelieving of the nerve of that guy.

Sarah's eyes was moistened by Chuck's speech, never in her life had she seen anyone so passionate about something that was not for their own gain, and oh his eyes, she had missed him looking at her like that, full of admiration and awe. She knew now LTJG Chuck Bartowski lived up to every single word LT Granger had said about him and so much more. Sarah knew she would be lucky if she could ever end up with someone like Chuck one day, and if he was interested in her, she was going to give it all to have a chance get to know him and to be with him.

As Chuck walked away, no one spared another look for Kane, they looked at their fearless leader and friend proudly, and was about to follow his example to get back to what they were doing. Just then, Kane shouted out of pure rage of being lectured like that, "OR WHAT? What are you going to do, flyboy? Are you going to shut me up? Like you navy squids would even know how. Everyone knew the Navy squids couldn't do anything to defend themselves!"

Chuck Bartowski was by no means someone easy to anger, or someone who liked to fight for that matters, he was a gentle man at heart. But he would stand up for his friends, family and country. Just like he stood up to bullies for Morgan during middle school, to Al Qaeda for his country when he joined the Navy and now he was going to stand up for his brothers and sisters in arms, to Agent Kane.

Before Chuck could turn around, LT McGarrett gently put a hand on his shoulder, they made eye contact and silently communicated with each other, and Chuck gave Steve an infinitesimal nod, before LT McGarrett stepped forward and spoke up.

"**Agent** Kane," He said calmly, but dripping with distain. "**If** you want to find out how us squids **couldn****'t** defend ourselves, why don't you get in the ring with Lieutenant Bartowski here, or are you just all talk?" He stepped forward right into Kane's face, "No protective gear other than a pair of gloves, no rules, no time outs. The fight finishes when one person taps out or passes out, and the loser would shut his mouth for good." LT McGarrett stated, and carried on, "Now the question is, **Agent **Kane, you can talk the talk, but can you walk the walk?" He finished with a challenge.

Kane wasn't stupid enough to want to get into a fight with a SEAL, but at that moment, he wasn't really thinking that much due to his rage, besides, he would be fighting with the flyboy, he himself was a trained Secret Service agent for years, he was sure he could take the kid down in matter of seconds, it would be a quick fight. He answered confidently. "Where are the gloves? And don't forget to get the medics ready for the flyboy."

LT McGarrett just smirked at this, he would get the medics ready alright, it certainly won't be Chuck who was going to need it, but the arrogant douchebag in front of him. Steve and his men had been training Chuck since near the beginning of this tour, he could tell the kid was already skilled, but lack the experience. After over half a year of training with him, he was pretty sure the kid was a much more skilled fighter than he was, he really learned fast. If it wasn't for Chuck's sharing the fighting techniques he already knew with the platoon, and the SEAL members' many years of experience in hand to hand combat, most of his men including himself, would be finding trouble to gain an upper hand over Chuck. Steve was planning to speak to his CO, LCDR Joe White, about recruiting Chuck to the SEALs, and if Chuck does end up taking his advice and going for BUD/S, Steve was sure by the time Chuck earned his 'SEAL Trident', he would no longer look forward to a spar with Chuck. So yeah, LT McGarrett was confident his brother could take the trash in front of him.

However, other than the SEALs on board, only a number of people had seen Chuck fight, most of the other sailors couldn't imagine the caring and cheerful young officer in a fight, so naturally, they were to some extent, worried for their friend, but they all knew better than to step in to stop the fight, plus, they took the comfort of knowing the SEAL platoon leader would never put LTJG Bartowski in situations he couldn't handle.

This thought was also shared by Sarah as well, Kane may be an obnoxious jerk, but he was a good enough fighter to become a team leader in the Secret Service, and she was worried Chuck's clearly genius brain, would not help him to get out of this undamaged. However, like others, she could see why Chuck would have to do this, and if she was honest to herself, a part of her was looking forward to the possibility of having Chuck beat the crap out of Kane.

Chuck wasn't going to misplace his brothers' faith in him, he wasn't going to let them see all their hard work in training him go to waste, he was going to give it all he got during the fight. He said simply with a firm tone to the Secret Service agent. "Gym in 15 minutes, don't be late." With that, Chuck left the mess to get ready for his fight, he didn't see the two senior officers and the Senator making scarce of themselves just before his exit.

* * *

** USS Abraham Lincoln,  
Arabian Gulf,  
1300 (UTC+3),  
March 20, 2003**

Sailors and junior officers filed into the gym eventually, not everyone who witnessed the confrontation in the mess turned up, after all, there was still an invasion going on. But words had spread like a wild fire on the ship, so everyone who wasn't on duty had showed up, including all the Secret Service agents, the SEAL Platoon, Chuck's wingman in the VFA-115 and his Knighthawk co-pilot, LT Granger, she was certainly not going to miss the chance of seeing Chuck beating the jerk on his ass.

Chuck had arrived 10 minutes after he left the mess, he had just missed the Executive Officer (XO) setting up a tiny camera Chuck himself had made, and left at his work desk, for the Captain, so the Battlegroup Commander and the Senator could watch the fight with the Captain, discreetly.

Chuck was wearing his standard Navy PT uniform, he had been warming up with a heavy bag, and had really worked up a sweat when Kane had finally arrived. Chuck asked as a courtesy towards the agent. "Do you need time to warm up, Agent?"

Kane shot back without thinking, "Why would I need to warm up for a fight with a wimp like you?"

"Suit yourself, let's begin." Chuck said, despite seeing Kane had dropped his top, Chuck opted to keep his shirt on, he didn't want to give away the bruise he had on his back from the bullet impacting on his body armour, as for the group of bandages he had on his right arm, there was nothing he could do about them, they were just flesh wounds, didn't hurt that much.

Despite of being well versed in boxing, kick boxing, Muay Thai, Krav Maga, Tai Chi, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Aikido, Karate and various other moves he had picked up from the SEALs, Chuck still wasn't confident, as he had never been in a real fight yet. Chuck had decided to apply the principle strategies he had learned from Art of War, carefully learning about Kane's strength and weakness first, then deciding on how he should strike to achieve maximum efficiency. He would also have to be careful protecting his right arm and his back.

Sarah was quite disappointed when she realised, Chuck was not going to take off his shirt, as his PT shirt was hiding whatever was underneath it quite effectively, only showing off his broad shoulders.

The fight had been going on for 5 minutes, to the untrained observers, and trained fighters with big egos like Kane, it looked like Kane was winning. Chuck had barely landed a punch, where Kane had landed plenty, the sailors were getting quite worried. But to the sharp eyes of the SEALs as well as Agent Walker, they could tell none of the punches had properly landed, they were only creating the illusion to Kane that he was winning. Sarah was getting less worried by the minute, she had realised Chuck was testing the waters, only throwing in attacking moves when he wanted to learn how Kane would react.

For the next 5 minutes, Kane eventually realised he wasn't winning after all, as his opponent, who should have been crushed by him 9 minutes ago, didn't show any sign of discomfort or tiredness. Whereas he was getting tired from all the attacks he had been doing, he needed to finish this fight quickly, for he knew he wouldn't last too long. So Kane renewed his attacks with more powerful hits, hoping he would gain an upper hand soon.

However, this change in tactics had exposed a lot of openings for Chuck. Chuck could see the agent was getting agitated, and was starting to make mistakes, he decided to exploit Kane's agitation as a weakness, and to agitate him even more to create more and bigger openings for his own attacks.

Sarah noticed after 10 minutes, Chuck had started a small number of offensive moves, there weren't many of them, but she could tell Chuck had selected each opportunity for his attacks carefully, only stroke when he was sure he wasn't going to expose himself, and each strike was as powerful as it was unexpected. She smiled when she saw the pained expression as well as the increased rage on Kane's face.

As Sarah watched on, she couldn't help but be more attracted to Chuck. Sure, Sarah was attracted to Chuck in the first place because he was different to all other men she had met, he was warm, caring, honest and noble, not to mention the **dreamy **brown eyes, yes, Sarah could admit to herself now that his eyes were dreamy. But this side of Chuck who could fight, not for himself, but for the people he cared about, and could fight really well apparently, was getting the blonde agent all hot and bothered. For the first time in her life, Sarah felt being turned on by a man, she felt like she was in heat, and Sarah was definitely not ready for Chuck's grand finish.

After the 15 minutes mark had passed, Chuck could see his opponent was close to exhaustion from all his exertions, and Kane was leaving out a lot of opening for his attacks. Chuck decided that he had baited the agent enough, it was time to finish this.

Sarah was shocked by the combination of Chuck's final attack, up until now, Chuck had only used well practiced, standard kick boxing moves, but his final attack had gave everyone a glimpse of how skilled Chuck was, with a range of martial art disciplines. Chuck started off with a frequently used move in Krav Maga, two quick jabs to stun the opponent, grabbed Kane by the nape of his neck and drove a knee to his groin; before Kane could finish yelping in pain, Chuck had threw him on the ground with an Aikido move that would made Steven Segal proud; once Kane was on the ground, Chuck had moved on to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, starting with a full mount and delivered several hard blows to Kane's face, before switching to a back mount position and put Kane into a choke hold. Chuck had completed this combination in 6 seconds flat, it happened so fast, Sarah could barely follow it. Sarah was still confident that she could take Chuck in a fight, but it would definitely be a challenge, and Sarah was looking forward to that challenge someday, that was when her subconscious projected an image of her, mounted on a topless Chuck, which did not help with her arousal at all, she was going to need a cold shower, a really cold one after this.

Needless to say, the sailors and junior officers were in awe of their friend.

Sarah couldn't see Chuck's eyes, but if she could, she would notice that, Chuck's warm brown eyes were replaced with darkened ones, with a hardness and determination sipping through them. Chuck took control of his breathing, warmth eventually returned to his eyes, he said compassionately, almost pleading for the agent to come to his senses. "It's over, Agent Kane. Give up now, and we can ignore all this mess like it never happened."

Sarah couldn't believe what she was hearing, the man just never gave up, he was still trying to be civil after all this, even when he was holding all the cards. Sarah realised, Chuck's unwillingness to finish off Kane, when he could have easily beat him unconscious from the beginning with his much superior fighting skills, just made Chuck that much more special.

Kane was still recovering from, well he didn't really know what. The flyboy had gotten the drop on him, and he was still getting over the shock of being kneed in the groin when he was thrown onto the ground, and before he knew it, he was in a choke hold. Kane wasn't stupid, he knew he couldn't win this fight now, unless he was fighting dirty, so he would concede, for now, and tapped out.

Chuck let go of Kane, who rolled to the side. Steve came over with a proud smile, and offered him a hand, Chuck took it gratefully, and was heading towards the edge of the ring. He had just made eye contact with the rest of the SEAL platoon when he noticed everyone had tensed up suddenly, that was when Chuck realised Kane had decided to not to give up after all. Kane did not realise it yet, but he had just pushed the young officer over the edge, as he had just betrayed their silent agreement, and decided to stab Chuck in the back, so to speak. Kane's reaction reminded Chuck of Jill's betrayal, and Chuck's whole demeanour changed before he delivered his knockout blow to Kane; Chuck jumped up, turned his head to locate Kane's position, and followed up with the jumping spinning hook kick Jean-Claude Van Damme was famous for, straight to Kane's head, and knocked him out cold. After making sure Kane stayed down this time, Chuck allowed himself to relax, and let the darkness in his eyes fade away and the usual warm chocolate brown to return.

Sarah saw what Kane was about to do, she was seething that Kane could be this foolish, and still wasn't willing to give up. Not only that, he had decided to go back on his conceding to the fight, and decided to attack Chuck after letting Chuck believe he had given up. She was just about to warn Chuck and that was when she saw the change in Chuck.

His eyes had darkened so much, she could barely make out any brown in them, they were no longer warm and kind, and instead, they were cold, calculating and oozing with confidence and determination. Despite these changes, Sarah could see his eyes were still, in a way, open and honest, and she could still see the bottom of his soul. Through his eyes, Sarah saw sadness and betrayal. She had learned so much about Chuck in that one moment, she had thought Chuck had led a perfect life, he was so open, cheerful and caring, Sarah thought he must have grown up in a loving family and had never suffered through any major traumas to be the way he was. But she realised she was wrong, this was a man who had suffered before, experienced betrayal before, but instead of dwelling on those experiences, this amazing man in front of her had decided to look forward to life, and was somehow still able to look for the best in people. But, he was no push over, he was willing to give others however many chances they needed, but one betrayal would be one too many.

Sarah felt even closer to Chuck after this realisation, he had baggage just like she did, and she really hoped that one day, soon, they could help with handling each other's baggage. Sarah smiled at that thought, and that was when she figured out why her heart tightened, when she realised how close Chuck came to dying. Sarah realised now, she already knew Chuck was special then, and if Chuck had died then, she would never got this chance to know more about this amazing, special man, and she would have spent the rest of her life as nothing else but a CIA agent, because she was sure there wasn't another man in the whole world who could compare to Chuck, her Chuck.

Sarah decided to not waste any more time, with the line of work she and Chuck were in, they could never be sure which would be their last day. 'Operation Getting to Know Bartowski' had just changed to 'Operation My Chuck' with the primary mission objective of winning Chuck for herself and having him to become hers, just like she was already his. He just didn't know it yet.

* * *

**A/N: I hope that was ok, it's a rather long chapter for my standard. But I wanted to get across what everyone was thinking along the story, so it took me a while to get to this point. Hopefully, it was acceptable.**

**Review Response: I think I have mentioned during a previous A/N, I would very much like to describe Chuck's life in the Navy for a lot more chapters, but it's a Charah story after all, so which is why Chuck's meeting with Sarah is quite earlier on in the story. But I do plan to write more about Chuck's deployment before he met Sarah, like how he connected with the SEALs, but they would be in a flashback where Chuck and Sarah start to share stories with each other, I hope that satisfy your wish, Blorg13.**

**Again I would like to thank you all for all your lovely reviews, they are really encouraging. Thank you!**

**Below is a response to Tropp's review, since you don't have an account here.**

** First of all, thank you for reading my story, and reviewing. I really appreciate it.**

** You are right, this is a fiction, and not everything here might be correct. Could you please point out the incorrect bits, instead of just telling me I am wrong? Because I would like learn more about Navy life, and if I don't know where I am wrong, I obviously can't correct it.**

** I won't lie, despite how much I do appreciate your review, I am somewhat peeved when you just accused me I know nothing about the military life. I can assure you, I did not get all my data from playing CoD, as I am not a big computer games fan at all. I am not going to write out my military career here for everyone to see, if you are or were in the service, you would know what I mean when I tell you, I have earned my maroon beret in the British Army, I have earned what is equivalent of the Gold Bar in the US armed forces, twice. It's true I have never been deployed on a ship, that is the reason I didn't write much in detail about everyday life on a carrier, except for what Chuck did, to emphasise he was different to everybody else in the Navy just like he was in the CIA.**

** Regulation wise, I do admit, things like radio procedures and how to greet officers, they won't be fully consistent to the US Navy. Because we do use a different system in the British Army, and I just combined that with what I know is different in the US armed forces. So my apologies for that, I don't mean any disrespect.**

**As for the flag waving bit, I might have overdone it, I have hinted the cohesion within the ship wasn't there from the start, and I am fully aware how not everything in the military is good, many aspects of it can be dreadful. I wrote it this way because I want to get across, indirectly, Chuck's effect on people. Besides, despite the not so good side in the military, I still have the utmost respect for everyone who had served and are serving their country honourably, that played an important factor in why I didn't want to write anything foul about the military, I was actually quite conflicted with the way I portrayed Kane, as I didn't want to disrespect the Secret Service either, but I had to create an enemy somewhere somehow, and I am planning to punish Kane, severely.**

**In summary, I do appreciate your opinion, but it would be more helpful if you could let me know where I can improve on. Thank you.**


	8. Ch 7: 'Aftermath'

**A/N: Found a little mistake in the last chapter, USS Abraham Lincoln was part of a Battlegroup instead of a Carrier Strike Group, I don't know what the difference is, but I have corrected it.**

* * *

**Chapter 7 - 'Aftermath'**

**USS Abraham Lincoln,  
Arabian Gulf,  
1320 (UTC+3),  
March 20, 2003**

Chuck had calmed himself down using a meditation technique from Tai Chi, he returned his attention to Steve, who nodded approvingly with some amusement as well. That was when he heard someone shouting out. "ATTENTION, Admiral on Deck!"

Everyone braced up and saluted towards the gym door as they watched RADM Wainwright walking in with Captain Cardwell and Senator Davidson following closely behind. The three left Captain's quarters when they saw the young officer, kung-fued for a lack of better words, the Secret Service agent into submission, the three older men had to admit, they were impressed, not just with LTJG Bartowski's martial art skills, but how he dealt with the whole situation, they could all recognize the natural leadership within the young man.

LTJG Bartowski realised how this whole thing must have looked, with their guest knocked out on the floor, he knew everyone here was in trouble, but he would be damned if he didn't try to get everyone else off the hook. So he stepped forward, stood at attention and saluted the highest ranking officer present, "Sir, Permission to speak, Sir?"

Chuck didn't take his hand down until RADM Wainwright returned the salute. The Battlegroup Commander carefully examined the young man in front of him, trying to guess what he was about to say. He had a pretty good idea what the young man wanted to say. RADM Wainwright had been keeping an eye on LTJG Bartowski for a while, ever since he heard about his actions during that mission, when the chopper he was co-piloting was shot down. The more he observed him, the more he liked the young man. LTJG Bartowski reminded RADM Wainwright of himself, eager to learn, willing to help, except he wasn't as smart as the young man standing in front of him.

After that mission, RADM Wainwright could see LTJG Bartowski's potential in the US Naval Special Warfare Command, and that fight earlier just further reinforced him about that idea. Given his next posting after this deployment would be Commander of the Special Warfare Command, he would very much like to recruit someone like LTJG Bartowski into the ranks.

"Permission Granted, Lieutenant."

"Thank you, Sir. I take full responsibilities for the situation, I had lost my temper with Secret Service Agent Kane. He is a guest, and I should have known better and should not have lost my temper. The sailors and the fellow junior officers tried to stop me, but I didn't listen. Please do not fault them, Sir, as this was my fault and my fault alone. I will accept any disciplinary actions you deemed appropriate, Sir."

Chuck finished his speech in a firm and determined tone, without any hesitation in taking the blame. The three older men smiled at this, CAPT Cardwell was fully expecting this reaction from Chuck after that favour he asked of him when they were redeployed, so he wasn't surprised. RADM Wainwright had just witnessed in person about all the good traits he had heard about the young Lieutenant, he had read his file, and knew he grew up without his parents, he decided right then, he would take a more active role in the young Lieutenant's life, and maybe he could become the father figure that was missing for the majority of the young man's life. Having three daughters himself, RADM Wainwright had always wanted a son, and he couldn't ask for a better son than the Lieutenant in front of him.

The sailors and junior officers just witnessed again how their fearless leader stood up for them, and after all the things LTJG Bartowski did for them, defending their honour, helping them with promotion exams and college tests, they all wanted to do something for the Lieutenant. So one sailor stepped up and saluted, "Sir, it was actually my fault, I provoked the Secret Service agent, Lieutenant Bartowski tried to break us up, but ended up knocking Agent Kane out by accident. I take full responsibility, Sir."

Once the snowball got rolling, it just kept on getting bigger and bigger, many other sailors, including some of the SEALs stepped up and made similar excuses for Chuck and volunteered to take the blame. It was almost amusing for the Rear Admiral to hear some of the ridiculous explanations the sailors came up. Even the Command Master Chief Petty Officer Joseph Pitts of the Carrier Air Wing spoke up to defend Chuck. "Sir, as the Command Master Chief Petty Officer, discipline on the ship was my responsibility, and I should have taken care of the situation. Lieutenant Bartowski had no blame in this, if you are to discipline anyone, it should be me, I take full responsibility, Sir."

Everyone knew the sailors of a ship would always be most loyal to the most senior NCO on the ship, as the officers rotated in and out frequently. When CMDCM Pitts spoke up for LTJG Bartowski, both RADM Wainwright and CAPT Cardwell realised, they may be the highest ranking officers on the ship, and may have the command of the ship, but the sailors would follow LTJG Bartowski to hell and back, even if it was against their orders. But they also knew, the young Lieutenant was barely aware of how deeply their loyalty towards him went, and even if he was, he would never seek to exploit that power.

Seeing the situation getting out of hand, Sarah finally spoke up, this would also be her first step towards winning her Chuck. "Sir, if I may?"

The Rear Admiral nodded, he was interested in what the blonde agent was going to say, all 3 of them had noticed the way LTJG Bartowski looked at her in the mess, when he told Agent Kane what he saw at the extraction site. The attraction between the two was clearly there. Since he had decided to be the father figure for the young Lieutenant, he would find out more about this later.

"Thank you, Sir. I thought it would be good for you to gain some fresh perspective of the situation from someone who wasn't under your command." Sarah chose her words carefully.

Chuck was gratefully nodding to all the sailors spoken on his behalf when he heard her voice, his head instantly snapped to the blonde agent. She had a beautiful voice, Chuck's brain would have shut down completely if it wasn't for the presence of a 2 Star Flag Officer, still, he went from full attention to the Rear Admiral to full attention to the beautiful blonde agent, eyes fixed onto her beautiful sapphire blue eyes, for he would not risk looking at her alluring lips.

Sarah could feel those pair of dreamy brown eyes on her again, she used all her training to stop herself from looking back, but she knew she wouldn't last long. So she quickly carried on, "Sir, Agent Kane was way out of line, Chu … Lieutenant Bartowski had given him many chance to back off, a lot more than he deserved, but Agent Kane had kept on baiting Lieutenant Bartowski, and Lieutenant Bartowski still didn't take the bait. The spar session was a mutually agreed arrangement, Agent Kane was knocked out after he had tapped out, when he had decided to attempt an unprovoked attack on the Lieutenant after he dropped his guard."

Sarah had decided now it was the time to look back into those dreamy brown eyes, so he could see how much she meant what she was about the say next. Sarah nearly forgot what she wanted to say when she looked at Chuck, he was looking at her in awe again, and this time, she had absolutely no idea why. But she found herself again and carried on. "In my opinion, Sir. Lieutenant Bartowski's conduct was befitting of an exemplary Navy Officer, his actions were noble, selfless and fearless, I would have been honoured to serve with him."

Everyone in the room could see clear as day how much their favourite officer and the blonde were attracted to each other, the way they looked at each other told them everything. Those closest to Chuck could say, they had never seen Chuck's eyes lit up like that before, not even when the Captain gave him access to the CDC.

When Sarah finished her speech, LT Granger, who was standing next to LT McGarrett, and was happy her plan was working better than expected, couldn't help but mutter under her breath mischievously, "Or serve under him."

Steve had caught Nicola's words, smirked as well. Chuck told him about Jill, and Steve couldn't be angrier for his brother. He saw how none of the female junior officers were able to 'land' Chuck, despite how hard many of them had tried, he frequently wondered, whether Chuck would ever move on from the bitch, Roberts' betrayal.

Chuck was the one who had introduced Ensign Catherine Rollins to him, and even set up of a date for them during a port visit, which went really well. Steve still owned Chuck for that one, and now that Chuck seemed finally taken an interest in the female population again, ok it was more like a specific blonde agent, Steve was going to repay the favour. So he raised his eyebrow at Nicola, asking permission to join in on whatever plan the devious flight officer was cooking up. Nicola got the message, and nodded with a smile.

Chuck saw the truth in her eyes as the blonde agent made her case, and how much she believed what she said, he finally realised, maybe, the blonde goddess could like him as well. Even if she only liked him as a friend, Chuck was going to take whatever he could get, he decided then he would talk to her as soon as this mess was over.

After a minute or two, RADM Wainwright realised his favourite junior officer and this blonde Secret Service agent were still spell bound by each other, and it was not going to end anytime soon if nobody interferes. This mess had dragged on long enough, he decided to speak up, and hopefully, those two lovebirds could break out whatever spell they were under.

"Listen up everyone," RADM Wainwright was glad to see LTJG Bartowski and the blonde agent had indeed broke out of their spells on each other, and were both red from realising they were staring at each other for a very long time, under the watchful eyes of everyone, including their bosses. The Rear Admiral carried on. "Senator Davidson, Captain Cardwell and myself were fully aware of what had happened, you should know by now, nothing happens on this ship, without your watchful Captain knowing. Now that had cleared up, no more lame excuses defending the young Lieutenant here, you could see he was embarrassed as he already is."

Everybody chuckled warmly at Chuck's expense, and the Rear Admiral continued. "While I don't condone any violent behaviour on this ship, Lieutenant Bartowski, as the lovely agent here pointed out, acted like a true leader would, he did not let the Navy down, and he did not let you down. So no one will be disciplined."

Everyone subtly sighed in relief at the Rear Admiral's words, they were quite surprised to be honest, given the Rear Admiral was usually a hard-ass. They still remembered when they were redeployed, how the Battlegroup Commander told them to 'Get Over It!', on New Year's morning.

"Lieutenant McGarrett and Granger, come see me in an hour, bring Agent Kane with you." RADM Wainwright said Kane's name with disdain, "Make sure he cleaned himself up first."

LT McGarrett and Granger replied together, "Aye, Aye, Sir."

"Good, everyone clear out, dismissed."

* * *

**USS Abraham Lincoln,  
Arabian Gulf,  
1400 (UTC+3),  
March 20, 2003**

10 minutes after the Battlegroup Commander's dismissal, everyone had cleared out, leaving Chuck and Sarah behind, alone in the gym. Neither of them had moved an inch, they both wanted to talk to each other, but neither were sure where to begin.

But it wasn't like either of them minded, they were entranced by each other, and had gotten lost in each other's eyes.

Chuck had his trademark full Bartowski grin on, ever since he heard the beautiful agent in front of him complimenting him in her beautiful voice, he couldn't stop himself grinning even if he tried. No-one had witnessed the full Bartowski grin on Chuck for a year, ever since the Jill debacle, the only time Chuck grinned like this since then was when he was flying his Super Hornet, since there was only one seat in his F/A-18E, no-one in the Navy had got the chance to see Chuck's full Bartowski grin, and needless to say, they have missed out.

As charming as Chuck's gentle, warm smile was, it couldn't compare to the full Bartowski grin, and its effect was hitting the blonde agent in full force.

Sarah was almost blinded by the way Chuck was smiling at her, it was beautiful, it made her feel like she was his whole world, and Sarah wanted to see that smile as often as possible. The confidence had exhibited by the blonde agent in front of the Rear Admiral was all gone, the conversation she had planned flew out of the window. Now that she was standing in front of the man she was trying to win over, alone, with the way he was smiling at her, looking at her, Sarah felt self-conscious, giddy and weak at her knees, all at the same time. The man in front of her was doing things to her somehow, as she had just involuntarily revealed the girl underneath the agent facade, the girl she had spent years to bury, and Sarah liked whatever he was doing to her, as for the first time in a long while, she felt like herself again.

It shouldn't be possible, but seeing the vulnerability sipping through the beautiful blonde ninja, Chuck's grin got even wider, threatening to split his face in half. Chuck now knew there was a real girl inside the agent, not that he didn't find the agent extremely beautiful and sexy, but he was attracted to the real girl underneath even more, and he was glad that she liked him enough to reveal that part of her to him.

Passing the 15 minutes mark of just staring at each other, Sarah decided to introduce herself, she couldn't win over someone who didn't even know her name, Sarah decided, if only she knew he was already hers for the taking, the moment she let the real girl sip through. She smiled timidly and extended her, said in a voice Chuck would never get enough of, "Hi, I'm Sarah, Sarah Walker."

Chuck was in shock, he didn't see her extended hand, as he couldn't believe the beautiful blonde just told him her name with without him asking. He involuntarily whispered out in awe, drawing out the last syllable "Sarah."

Sarah blushed at his reaction, she was dancing on the inside, knowing she could elicit such a reaction from Chuck, he was definitely good for her ego, as she managed to gain back enough of her confidence back to smile her full smile, her real full smile back at Chuck.

Sarah probably shouldn't have done that, as Chuck's brain had officially overheated by Sarah's bright, beautiful smile, and not only that, she was giving that smile to him.

Chuck wasn't as oblivious as everyone thought he was, he had noticed, how more women were starting to notice him since he started working out, and he could tell a number of women on the ship, beautiful women at that, wanted to 'devour' him during the port visits. However after Jill's betrayal, he wasn't ready to love again, he had to protect his heart, so Chuck opted to play the oblivious card, as he still wanted to be everyone's friend, including those women who were constantly trying to get closer. Even then, in his wildest imagination, he could never believe a drop dead gorgeous woman, with crazy knife skills, would smile at him like that. But she was standing right in front of him, doing exactly that, and Chuck couldn't deny what was right in front of him, he was so tempted to open his heart and let someone in again, he craved for that to happen.

When his brain finally rebooted, but was still loading up his motor and speech functions, his logic side took over, and started to analyse everything. He didn't want to be alone, he never wanted to be alone, which was partly why he surrounded himself with friends, who were now more like his family. To him, there wasn't much distinction between family and friends anyway, he would give his life for any of them. But since Jill, he had to protect that part of him from being hurt again, until he could heal from that particularly painful betrayal. He wasn't sure he had fully healed yet, in fact, he knew he hadn't, but looking at the perfect woman in front of him, he knew he would kick himself later, if he let this chance to be with her slip away because of his own insecurities, he had to give it a try. It wasn't like they are jumping straight into the deep end anyway, they could take it slow, one step at the time …

Sarah just realised what she did, she didn't know she could have that much power over this man, and she would be lying if she didn't enjoy it somewhat. But she wouldn't abuse her new found power, well not too much. She decided she really liked Chuck's dazed expression when she was the cause of it, but she would also use this power to protect his heart, she couldn't even stand the thought of being responsible for that sad, betrayed expression on Chuck's face earlier. So she smiled back even brighter.

Sarah couldn't remember the last time she was this happy, and it was all because she was standing in the same room, alone, with this man, and they still had not hold a full conversation yet. After some time, she didn't know how long, passed, seeing Chuck still wasn't going to respond, Sarah spoke up again, in a slightly louder voice.

"Lieutenant? … Lieutenant Bartowski?"

Hearing his name spoken by the Goddess herself, Chuck's brain finally managed to regain most of its functions. Realising he had shut down again, Chuck turned bright red.

_God, he is so cute when he was embarrassed! _Sarah thought, and since when was 'cute' in her vocabulary.

His time in the Navy had taught him how to compose himself, so he regained his usual easy going, confident, and charming self, well, mostly, and said while reaching out to shake Sarah's still extended hand, "Please, call me Chuck, even the sailors only call me by my rank to appease the high ranking officers."

Sarah smiled at this, this is just so him. But she wasn't ready for her own body's reaction when he shook her hand, neither of them were. When they touched for the first time, sparks of electricity travelled down both of their spines, and they both shivered at that. Her small, delicate yet strong hand just felt so right to be in his bigger and calloused one. Sarah tried to cover up her own reaction by replying, "Sure, Chuck!" saying his name almost flirtatiously, she teased, "I didn't think people still named their kids Chuck."

Chuck could tell she was teasing, withdrawing his hand, both instantly missed each other's touch, and put on a faux serious expression. "Well, my parents were sadists." He then smiled to show he was kidding, and decided to say what he had been put off saying since he got back to the ship. He looked down, and blurted out nervously. "Sorry for staring, you know, for when we were on our way back, and just now. I don't know why I did that, except for my brain just seemed to shut down whenever I do look at you …" He was about to carry on when Sarah interrupted.

Sarah didn't know how she could be even more attracted to this man, but she didn't care. She felt giddy hearing she was causing that brilliant brain of his to shut down, but she didn't want to blush more than she already had, so she interrupted him with a smile. "It's Ok, Chuck. I was staring right back at you, wasn't I?" She continued, "Besides, you were only staring at my eyes, it wasn't like your eyes were wondering to where they shouldn't be."

Sarah had noticed Chuck never once looked below her neck, if it were any other man, she wouldn't want them to, but this was Chuck, she actually wanted him to notice her assets, for some reason, she know Chuck would still be respectful, and would never objectify her. Well she got her wish.

Chuck had been forcing himself to keep only looking into Sarah's eyes, ever since she got on to his helicopter, after he had given her a once over to make sure there wasn't any bullet holes on her. Not that he was complaining, since he firmly believed that her eyes were Sarah's most alluring feature. But Chuck was a man after all, especially after over a year of celibacy, with an almost eidetic memory, Chuck could vividly remember how good Sarah looked in her black business suit. Therefore, Chuck wasn't sure he could stop himself from staring if he looked down from her face again, he was a gentleman after all. But, when she mentioned something about 'his eyes wondering', Chuck's eyes did start wondering down, he got a good look her ample chest, her perfect hourglass figure and her mile long legs, hugged snugly by her black business suit jacket and pants, before he managed to stop himself and snapped his eyes back to look at her face.

As Sarah watched his eyes travelling down her body, she felt very different than all the other times men had checked her out. In all those men's eyes, all she could see in their eyes were unrestrained lust and impure thoughts that made her skin crawl; but in Chuck's eyes, sure there was some lust in there, a healthy amount that made Sarah feel wanted, but more prominently, there was endless admiration and awe that made Sarah feel oh-so-special. Sarah decided to have some fun with Chuck and stared back him in mock anger.

When Chuck found Sarah's eyes again, she looked angry, he didn't understand how she could look so sexy while being angry. Then Chuck remembered what happened to those 5 Iraqi soldiers, he visibly cringed at that, this was one dangerous and extremely beautiful, but dangerous nonetheless Avenging Goddess he did not want to cross.

Sarah saw the cringe, and was amused by Chuck's reaction, rightfully so, as she could definitely kick his ass. She continued her fun, raised one eye-brow while maintaining her angered expression. "See something you like, sailor?" She last the last word with a somewhat sultry tone, which Chuck did not notice, as he squirmed even more, much to Sarah's amusement.

"Yes … No … I mean yes. I am sorry, I did not meant to stare, you are an extremely woman and …" Finally, Chuck noticed the mirth in her eyes as Sarah could barely stop herself from laughing. "You are not really angry, are you?" Chuck asked, visibly relaxed as Sarah started laughing, so hard that she started bending over, holding her stomach. "Very funny, Agent Walker." Chuck said sarcastically, but he really wasn't angry at all, he loved the sound of her laughter.

Finally, after a minute, or so, Sarah composed herself, still having a huge smile on her face, _God, I haven't laughed like that in… forever._ Sarah wondered how this man was able to bring so much joy to her. "Sorry." She offered.

Chuck narrowed his eyes, scrutinized Sarah carefully. "You are not sorry at all, are you?" Chuck asked rhetorically, and pouted.

Seeing his pout, Sarah doubled over again, laughing her heart out. She recovered a little bit quicker than last time, and asked. "Did you just pout,** Lieutenant**?"

Chuck looked at her sternly, trying to look serious, unsuccessfully. "No, I did not." Sarah just giggled at his expression, to which, Chuck pouted at her again. Which just brought a full laughter from Sarah. Chuck grinned brightly, he was quite proud of himself of being to make this goddess laugh.

Sarah saw his grin and asked with a hint of challenge. "What are you grinning at?"

"Making you laugh." Chuck answered easily, with pride.

Sarah, again, was amazed by this man, no one, not even her father, ever cared enough to make her laugh just for the sake of it, yet here was this man, who was smart enough to take whatever he wanted, and at this moment, all he cared about was making her laugh. Sarah had the urge to push him against the wall, and kiss him until he passes out for that comment, only with her CIA training and her conning experience, did she manage to stop herself, she didn't want to scare Chuck away. Still, she didn't know what to say, she just grinned back at him and looked at the man in front of her with curiosity, awe, and … something else she couldn't describe.

Chuck suddenly remembered he was still in his PT uniform, which was still raking with sweat, he was rather embarrassed, to say the least. "Sorry, Sarah, I must stink, let me take a shower first and get changed …" Then Chuck remembered something else, Sarah was still wearing the same clothes she did this morning, when she got onto his chopper. "Wait, you weren't able to freshen up since you left Baghdad, were you?"

Sarah shook her head no. "And I am guessing you don't have a change of clothes with you?" Sarah shook her head again. "Right, come with me, I will find you something of mine to wear for now, we'll take a shower, then I will see if I can find something more appropriate for you to wear." Seeing Sarah's smirk, Chuck asked. "What?"

"**A** shower, Lieutenant? We are moving a bit fast, aren't we?" Sarah said with amusement shining through her blue eyes, she didn't even try to look angry, but still had Chuck squirming with embarrassment.

"Showers, plural, a shower each. And you are just messing with me again, aren't you?" Chuck pouted yet again.

Sarah grinned proudly. "Yep, you are so easy. Plus, you look so cute when you ramble." _I just want to shut you up by kissing you senseless. _Sarah mentally added.

Chuck stood up straighter, trying to look intimidating. "Cute? I am a combat pilot, Agent Walker. Besides, I don't think your colleague, Agent Kane would agree with you." Chuck challenged slightly.

Sarah smiled at that memory of Kane getting his ass owned by Chuck. She then remembered her desire to 'spar' with Chuck, a plan formed in her head. "No, he probably wouldn't. Nice moves by the way." Sarah stepped closer to him, smiled sweetly. "So you think you can take me in a fight?"

Chuck had a feeling this wouldn't end well for him no matter what his answer was. "Sarah?" He drew out her name.

Sarah stepped even closer, close enough to be able to smell each other. They were intoxicated with each other's scent, despite the sweat and Iraq dust covering Chuck and Sarah respectively. Sarah enjoyed the masculine scent on Chuck, while Chuck was loving the vanilla scent sipping out from Sarah. Sarah continued in a saccharine sweet tone. "Don't worry Chuck, I will let you recover first." Sarah's scent and her proximity was sending Chuck to dreamland, he could just about making out what she was saying. "Tomorrow, you and me, let's see if you can take on a real fighter." Sarah started to head out, not giving Chuck a chance to refuse.

When Chuck had finally came out from his Sarah-scent-induced semi-coma, and realised what she just said, he found Sarah already walking towards the Gym's exit, throwing over her shoulder. "Come on Chuck, I am looking forward to **that** shower you promised." Sarah then winked at him before turning towards the door.

Chuck couldn't help but be flustered by this beautiful blonde. _She is going to be the death of me one day._ He mused, and followed Sarah out. They walked towards Chuck's berthing area in comfortable silence, both of them were thinking of the same thing. They couldn't believe how easy and fun it was to be around each other, and they both wanted to explore whatever this was further.

* * *

**USS Abraham Lincoln,  
Arabian Gulf,  
1445 (UTC+3),  
March 20, 2003**

LT McGarrett and LT Granger were sitting outside the RADM Marcus Wainwright's office, with Agent Kane in tow. Seeing it was exactly an hour ago on the dot since the Rear Admiral requested the meeting, LT McGarrett knocked on the door and reported. "Lieutenant Granger and Lieutenant McGarrett, reporting as ordered, Sir."

"Come in, Lieutenants." Answered the Rear Admiral, "And bring Agent Kane in with you."

"Yes, Sir."

All three them went into the office, LT Granger first, then Agent Kane with LT McGarrett following at the end. Agent Kane wasn't too worried, he wasn't part of the Navy, and they had no authority over him. So he walked into the Rear Admiral's office with a smug look on his face, which was wiped off the moment he saw the Senator as well as Captain Cardwell in the office.

The Lieutenants saluted their superior officers and were asked to take a seat, while Agent Kane were ordered to step forward.

RADM Wainwright steeled his voice and said. "Agent Kane, do you realise the trouble you are in?"

Agent Kane protested, vainly. "Sir, Bartowski started it. Besides, I am not in the Navy, **Sir**." Kane said 'Sir' sarcastically, and finished off smugly. "You have no authority over me."

RADM Wainwright slammed his hands on the table and shot up, staring down right into Kane's eyes. The older man was surprisingly tall, although he could no longer fill out his uniform like he did during his youth, RADM Wainwright still kept himself extremely fit, he wouldn't feel right to wear his SEAL Trident, let alone going to command all those brave souls who earned their place in the Special Warfare Command, if he didn't keep fit himself. Steve and Nicola nearly jumped at the Rear Admiral's reaction, and Agent Kane took a visible step back, realising he might be in seriously trouble, too little, too late. RADM Wainwright raised voice and said. "It's Lieutenant, Junior Grade, soon to be Lieutenant Bartowski. Show some respect, **Agent** Kane. And what are we, this is not pre-school, and you do not get to play 'who started what' game. Senator Davidson, Captain Cardwell and I were all present in the mess, we all saw what happened. If it wasn't for Lieutenant Bartowski, the sailors would have thrown you overboard, and I wouldn't have stopped them."

RADM Wainwright took a breath and sat down again. He continued with a cold voice. "I have spoken to the Director of the Secret Service, we crossed path before during Vietnam War, he was appalled by your actions and promised me, you would be disciplined severely. Bill, he is all yours."

Senator William Davidson carried on. "Thanks Marcus, Agent. Have you read my background when you were assigned to lead my protective detail?"

Agent Kane nodded, of course, he had assigned the task to one of his men, he barely glanced at the Senator's file.

"Then you should have known, I served in the Navy." Seeing Kane's blank expression, Senator Davidson knew this was new to him, but didn't let him to respond, and carried on. "In fact, I served with Captain Cardwell here, before I got injured, and was medically discharged. I was here when Rear Admiral Wainwright called your director, and I assure you, he didn't sound happy." The Senator paused to let his words sink in before he continued. "I have decided to stay on the ship for a while, Agent Walker and Agent Smith will stay with me, you and the three other agents will be on the next available flight to a nearby friendly country, and you will make your own way back to Washington. Dismissed. And don't cause any more trouble than you already have, Agent Kane."

Kane left the office in rage, he could not believe he was the one getting punished while the flyboy was going to get a promotion. He didn't even acknowledge the Senator before he slammed the door of the Battlegroup Commander's office.

The Senator suggested to the rest of the room, "I think I should ask those three agents to restrain Agent Kane."

Both RADM Wainwright and Captain Cardwell chuckled at that remark.

Sitting at the back, Steve and Nicola were both thinking of the same thing, _I should have brought popcorn._

RADM Wainwright had calmed down, he softened his tone and addressed the two Lieutenants in his office. "Lieutenants, hope you had enjoyed the show."

Neither knew how they should answer that, so they both chorused, "Yes, Sir."

"Good, now that was quite a display by Lieutenant Bartowski, wasn't it. I am guessing you were responsible for teaching him how to fight like that, Lieutenant McGarrett?"

LT McGarrett sat up to attention and replied respectfully. "Sir, I couldn't take all the credit, all the men under my command helped. And even before that, Lieutenant Bartowski was already skilled in several fighting styles."

This was new to the Rear Admiral, so he decided to find out more about the young officer. "I have been watching the young Lieutenant for a while, I think he had shown great potential. Captain Cardwell told me, you two are his closest friends on the ship, can you tell me more about Lieutenant Bartowski, about personal things I couldn't find out by reading his file." Seeing the young officers' worried expression, he quickly added. "Please be assured that I have Lieutenant Bartowski's best interests in mind, I wasn't lying when I told Kane, Lieutenant Bartowski is going to be promoted soon. I just wanted to learn how we may help Lieutenant Bartowski further."

Both Lieutenants nodded, and LT McGarrett started. "Lieutenant Bartowski is the smartest, bravest and most selfless man I have ever met, there is no doubt about it. He is driven, not by his career progression, but by his need to help others, as well as his curiosity. Sir."

LT Granger continued. "I agree with Lieutenant McGarrett. And despite his superior intelligence and his ability to do seemingly everything, Lieutenant Bartowski is humble, he respects others and encourages everyone around him. I really think he brings the best out of the people around him. Sir."

The three older men listened attentively, this was nothing new to them, they all wanted to learn more about the personal aspects of the young Lieutenant, especially about the way he was looking at the blonde Secret Service agent, as well as where is the next step for Chuck's Navy career, of course.

The Senator gently nudged. "What can you tell us about his family, girlfriend, wife?"

LT Granger said sadly, "I only know what I heard from the rumours, all I can tell you from my perspective is, there is a sadness somewhere in Lieutenant Bartowski, he don't often show it, but when you watched him carefully, you could occasionally see a sadness and betrayal in his eyes. Perhaps Lieutenant McGarrett could tell you more about this. He did talk to me often about his sister Ellie though, actually he said numerous times that I reminded him of her. I could tell that he and his sister are very close. I don't know what else to tell you, Sir."

LT McGarrett was somewhat uncomfortable, being a SEAL Platoon Leader did mean he wasn't as good at expressing his emotions, but Chuck had always managed to get him to break through his own tough exterior. He took a deep breath and explained. "His sister Ellie and his friend Morgan were the only constants in his life. Lieutenant Bartowski is also very close to his college best friend, Bryce, I think his name was, who should still be in college, and Ellie's boyfriend, I forgot what his name was. Others close to him before he joined Navy had all let him down somehow. His parents abandoned him at a young age, Ellie raised him, and I think that is why they are so close. His girlfriend at college, Jill, broke up with him, and attempted to convince him she was cheating with his best friend Bryce, the day Lieutenant Bartowski was going to propose." LT McGarrett sighed heavily and continued. "Sir, one could say Lieutenant Bartowski was broken from the inside, I can't say I disagree from that statement, but I also have to add, broken or not, Lieutenant Bartowski had never let his personal life affect him professionally, he is still caring and driven, and always tries to help others without being asked, he is a great leader, and an even better friend. Sir."

These information was new to LT Granger, she never knew how tough Chuck's life was, and she could not believe how someone experienced all those things could still be as cheerful, as caring as Chuck was. LT Granger blinked to push the tear in her eyes back and asked no one in particular. "What kind of parents would abandon a child like Chuck?"

RADM Wainwright took this all in, reading it in the file was one thing, hearing all the bad things happened to the young officer was another, he steeled his determination to be more involved with LT Bartowski's life, and to be as helpful as he could. "Lieutenant Bartowski is an extraordinary and resilient young man, isn't he? Lieutenant McGarrett, I will be assigned to command the Naval Special Warfare Command after this tour, what's your opinion of recruiting Lieutenant Bartowski into our ranks?"

LT McGarrett answered. "I think that is a great idea, Sir. I was already planning to speak to Commander White about this, Sir."

"Good, Lieutenant, you should still do that, and I will work it on my end when the time comes. Now that is settled, let's talk about Agent Walker."

LT Granger immediately reacted to this, she really wanted to know what was going on in the three older men's heads. She asked, trying to keep as neutral as possible, "What about Agent Walker?"

Senator Davidson chuckled at this. "Relax Lieutenant, and don't play coy with me, I think we have all seen how Lieutenant Bartowski and Agent Walker were looking at each other. Although your Commanding Officers here and I usually do not play matchmakers, but I think Lieutenant Bartowski deserves all the support he could get. Why do you think I requested to stay on the ship, I missed the Navy life, but not that much."

Both LT Granger and McGarrett let out a breathe they didn't know they were holder, and smiled.

Captain Cardwell added his two cents. "Both Rear Admiral Wainwright and I are supporting this idea to have Agent Walker stay here a while longer, as long as those two can stay professional in front of others, and keep it in their pants while they are on **my** ship."

LT McGarrett nodded in agreement with the idea while LT Granger was over the moon. "Brilliant, Sir. I would hug you, but I don't think that would be appropriate, would it, Sir?"

Captain Cardwell smiled warmly, "No, it wouldn't, Lieutenant." He switched back to his professional mask again and dismissed LT Granger and McGarrett, but not before the Rear Admiral telling them. "This conversation never happened, Lieutenants."

* * *

**A/N: I know eidetic memory wasn't proven to exist, but given the way Intersect was encoded to someone's brain, I don't think it's that far of a stretch if Chuck had eidetic memory.**

**I know things are moving much faster in this story when it comes to Sarah and Chuck, I hope you don't mind.**

**Review response: I think I had answered most of the questions and suggestions in private messages. But I just want to say this again, thank you all for reading and reviewing my story. **

**As for the mushy bits, this is a story of romatic genre, thus mushy things are inevitable, plus that is kind of how I write. However these two or three Chapters were or are going to be extra touchy feely, since I want to get across how Chuck and Sarah are feeling towards each other and how are they able to lower down their respective barriers so fast. When I go back to missions, the pace will pick up again. Hope this satisfy some of the readers.**

**Thank you again, and hope you enjoyed this chapter.  
**


	9. Ch 8: What Friends are for

**A/N: Thank you all for all your lovely and encouraging reviews, they are a really good motivator to say the least. I am sorry this chapter came out a bit late, I didn't want to write down too much boring details of their life, so I was taking a while trying to get it right. So here it is, hope you enjoy it. Review responses will be at the end of the chapter.**

**Lastly, could I ask you to vote on the poll on my profile, please. It's related to this story, and would become somewhat important in much later chapters. Thank you. I will be posting this repeatedly on my new chapters until I close the poll.**

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**Chapter 8 - What Friends are for**

**USS Abraham Lincoln,  
Arabian Gulf,  
1530 (UTC+3),  
March 20, 2003**

Sarah had just finished her shower, on her own. She did tease Chuck again by asking if they were going to take a shower together, just before they went their separate ways for their respective showers, and Chuck being Chuck, his face went bright red and he declined politely with a stutter. Sarah couldn't help but be somewhat disappointed, but she was glad at the same time, knowing Chuck respected her and was not the type to have sex with any woman he could; in addition, there was that cute reaction Sarah loved watching, when he got all flustered by her.

Chuck had dug out one of his old Stanford shirt, a boxer and a pair of PT shorts for her, she was now wearing all of them after showering using Chuck's shampoo and body wash, now she could smell Chuck all over her and she had to say, she enjoyed his scents, especially those coming from his Stanford shirt, immensely. His shirt was really big for her, but Sarah found herself snuggling into it comfortably, _this is one shirt he was not going to find again._ Sarah thought to herself, already decided this shirt no longer belonged to Chuck Bartowski, but to her.

Sarah had not walked more than 5 meters away from the showers, did she bump into non-other than Chuck's co-pilot, LT Granger.

LT Granger had a big smile on her face, knowing her superiors were actively taking part on her plan. When she saw Sarah coming out of the showers in what were clearly Chuck's clothes, her smile got wider. She greeted Sarah mischievously. "Agent Walker, I like the outfit." Nicola looked up and down the blonde agent, before giving her a wink, Nicola teased, "Should I be expecting to see Lieutenant Bartowski in the showers, too?"

Only now did Sarah realise, she must looked like she was doing the walk of shame. Her face went bright red, as she stuttered like Chuck, "No, it wasn't like…" Sarah stopped mid-sentence, and asked herself why she was explaining herself, she wanted the world, or just all the brunettes in the world to know, Chuck was hers and hers alone, and nothing would stand in her way. Sarah regained her composure easily with her training, and held her head high, "Actually, why don't you have a look for yourself, Lieutenant Granger?"

Nicola was both surprised and impressed by Agent Walker's response, she knew Chuck well enough to know Chuck would never sleep with someone he just met the same day, let alone on an aircraft carrier taking part during an invasion. It seemed that despite the reflexive urge to defend her honour, the woman in front of her was not afraid to admit her feelings for Chuck, and was more than ready to stake her claim. Nicola was pleased about her friend's taste in women, or a woman, so it seemed. Nevertheless, Nicola wanted to make sure Agent Walker never breaks Chuck's already wounded heart.

"Nice come back, Agent Walker." Nicola praised. Sarah nodded proudly, and Nicola continued, more kindly. "Chuck is quite clueless about these things, but we don't want the whole ship see you in that now, do we? I am sure neither you nor Chuck needed that kind of reputation." Sarah thought for a second and nodded again, she then answered back.

"Chuck had planned to get me more appropriating clothing, but he wanted to let me get a shower first, so I could get rid of all the Iraq that was stuck on me. He is in the shower now, the **men****'s** shower, he said he will get to it as soon as he finish."

Nicola nodded at her explanation, which made complete sense, giving how caring Chuck was. She smiled inwardly at the blonde agent's use of 'Chuck', and turned on her teasing expression again. "First name basis already? I suppose that went with sharing clothes." Nicola winked again before saying. "Come on, Agent Walker, **Chuck** might be a genius and all, but he is clueless when it comes to clothing. Luckily he joined the Navy, where he could just wear one of the many different uniforms we have, more or less, I don't know how he would survive adulthood as a civilian with his sense of fashion, or lack thereof." Sarah could sense, the way LT Granger was talking about Chuck, it was almost sisterly, Sarah hoped one day, they could become good friends, as of right know she didn't really have any. Nicola continued, while thinking of ways to create opportunities for these two lovebirds to see each other off the ship, "Anyways, we look about similar in size, I will lend you some of my civilian clothes, get Chuck to return them to me when you are done with them."

"Are you sure about this?" Sarah asked, she didn't accept help easily, not only that, she couldn't help but feel the brunette was up to something.

"Yeah, of course, give me a sec, I'll yell through the door to let Chuck know where you went." Nicola did just that, and didn't really give Sarah much of a choice, before she led the blonde agent to her berth.

* * *

**USS Abraham Lincoln,  
Arabian Gulf,  
1600 (UTC+3),  
March 20, 2003**

Nicola had just handed her a stack of neatly folded clothes, Sarah could tell there were a couple of sweaters, a pair of jeans, a pair of track pants and some unused Navy issue under clothes as well as a set of sports bra. Sarah picked up the sports bra and looked at the Lieutenant questionably.

LT Granger just smirked, "Chuck wasn't the only one who saw you took down those 5 Iraqi soldiers with a knife, after Chuck's performance against Kane earlier on, I figured you would challenge him for a spar, am I wrong?"

Sarah wasn't pleased that the brunette could figure her out that easily, still, she nodded affirmatively and smiled at the thought of 'sparring' with Chuck.

Nicola continued. "Well, I figure Chuck would be even more attracted to you if you turned up wearing that, not that he needs any help from the looks of things, he seemed already spell-bound by you."

Sarah turned red again, she didn't realise Chuck's feelings towards her were this clear to everyone else, and she couldn't help but be flustered and feel good about herself. She smiled sheepishly.

Nicola looked directly into Sarah's eyes to catch her gaze, and asked softly. "Just do me a favour, please, Agent Walker?"

Growing up as a conman's daughter, Sarah subconsciously tensed up a bit, "Please, call me Sarah."

"Only if you promise me this favour."

"What is it?" Sarah asked cautiously.

"Promise me you will make him happy, and never break his heart. Will you promise me that?" Her voice was soft, but Nicola's eyes were never more intense.

Sarah couldn't help but start to worry, worry if she was capable of making a man like Chuck happy, she wasn't even funny, not to mention she was a CIA agent. "I can promise you I will never knowingly break Chuck's heart, I would die before doing that, but…, but I am worried that if I am capable of making Chuck happy, I didn't exactly have a happy childhood, not to mention our different career paths." Sarah was surprised that she even revealed this much about herself.

Nicola smiled at her response, to Sarah's surprise, and said confidently. "Of course you will, I can tell you that, for the past 8 months I have known Chuck, I have never seen his eyes lit up like they did today when he was looking at you. And he had just known you for less than half a day." Nicola's expression became solemn, "Chuck's childhood wasn't a good one either, before you ask, it's not my place to tell. Just be there for each other as much as you can, Chuck is a Navy man, he understands that you won't be able to see each other all the time, but it doesn't mean you can't be there for each other in other ways, just talk to Chuck, and you will figure something out together. Whatever it is between you two, I can tell it's something special, it something that only happens once in a lifetime, **don****'t** give up on it, **never** give up on it. Promise me that, will you?"

Sarah thought the brunette had a point, she had never been this happy before, and whatever it was, she would be damned to let any obstacle get in the way. She looked into Nicola's eyes with determination, and nodded. "I promise. Lieutenant."

Nicola smiled, seeing her resolve at making this work. "Good, now you can call me Nicola, Sarah."

"Sure, Nicola, thank you for the advice, and the clothes." Sarah returned her smile and said.

"No problem, let me know if you need anything else. By the way, chow starts at 1800, come sit with me, so I can tell you some embarrassing stories about Chuck." Nicola smiled deviously at that thought.

Eager to learn more about her Chuck, Sarah smiled brightly and said. "I won't miss it for the world, see you at the mess then."

* * *

**USS Abraham Lincoln,  
Arabian Gulf,  
1820 (UTC+3),  
March 20, 2003**

Chuck had just gotten his warning order, he would receive the Op Order at 2100. So he went to the mess, hoping to see the beautiful blonde there. No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't take her off his mind. So he had given up trying, and decided having her brilliant smile forever on the forefront of his mind wasn't a bad place to be, he would just have to find a way to concentrate on his many jobs while thinking about how beautiful Sarah's smile was.

Oh how he longed to hear her laugh again. Chuck had gotten his wish the moment he stepped into the mess. Chuck had his full Bartowski grin on as he approached the table, where Sarah, Nicola, Steve and Cat were laughing their heads off about something. Chuck's grin faltered, when the group noticed him approaching, and started laughing even harder, he had a strong feeling that he was the subject of their amusement.

Chuck sat down and mocked, "Ha, ha, ha. You guys are so funny," He then turned to Sarah, and said with a serious expression, "Sarah, whatever they told you about me, they were lying."

Sarah managed to stop laughing for a second and asked challengingly. "Oh really, Chuck?"

"Yes, really." Chuck was not going to back down.

"What about what **I** told them?" Sarah smirked, and made eye contact with everyone else on the table, who got the message and let Sarah play this out, before returning her gaze to Chuck.

Chuck wasn't as sure as himself before, in the short time since he had met the blonde goddess, she had already made his brain freeze a number of times, and Chuck wasn't sure how many embarrassing things he did while he was flustered by the beautiful agent.

"What, what did you tell them, Sarah?" Chuck asked drawing out her name again.

Sarah just smiled sweetly, and asked. "Are you sure what I told them was a lie?"

"Yes," Chuck answered without thinking, but seeing Sarah raised her eyebrow questionably in such a cute way, he got flustered again, and changed his answer. "Maybe," Chuck said slowly before Sarah raised her other eyebrow as well, staring right into his eyes. Chuck's resolve cracked, and answered. "No." before he pouted.

Seeing his pout, Sarah clapped her hands in glee, and pointed at Chuck's mouths, "See what I mean? The big bad **combat pilot** pouts."

Everyone started laughing at Chuck's expense. And Chuck's pout got even more pronounced as his face went bright red, this only served to fuel everyone's laughter even more. His pout didn't stay long though, seeing and hearing Sarah laughing like that made it all worth it, as Chuck's Bartowski grin was back in place, and he caught Sarah's gaze, who smiled her brilliant full smile back at him. Yet again, everyone else around them faded away, and there was just them in the whole world.

After some time, Steve, Cat and Nicola had calmed down for a few minutes, and realised Chuck and Sarah were not going to snap out of it by themselves, they decided to intervene.

Steve's snapping fingers finally broke the spell, and both Sarah and Chuck went bright red again, realising they had yet another stare contests under everyone's watch, they really had to stop doing this in public places. Cat chimed in, "If you two lovebirds can stop making googly eyes at each other, maybe Chuck could get his dinner now?"

Nicola suddenly had a devious thought, she knew with Chuck's personality, it would be ages before he would make a move for the blonde agent, maybe she could plant some thoughts into their minds to nudge them in the right direction. So she added conspiringly. "Or maybe Chuck would like to have Sarah for dinner instead?"

Chuck wasn't sure he heard his co-pilot correctly, but either way, he started coughing and couldn't stop himself. While Sarah's eyes glazed over at the thoughts of being intimate with Chuck, and zoned out. The three other people at the table just watched their reaction with amusement. Steve couldn't help but add, "By the look of things, Sarah wants to have Chuck for dinner." Nicola and Cat exploded in laughter, yet again.

Eventually, Chuck regained his composure, well not entirely, but he stopped coughing and stood up. "I am going to… erm… get some food, for **dinner**." He said the last word with a glare directed at Nicola, who gave him an innocent smile.

Seconds later, Sarah realised Chuck had left, while Steve, Cat and Nicola were all watching her carefully, she could tell they were all trying to restrain themselves from laughing. Sarah went red again, _I blushed more times on this damn ship than I had in my entire life._ Sarah composed herself again, putting on her most intimidating glare, trying to at least, which wasn't easy as her mind was still occupied with thoughts of Chuck, but she did managed to look intimidating somewhat and she challenged. "What?" Inside, Sarah was thanking her agent training from "the Farm", for she wouldn't know what to do with herself otherwise, other than to dig a hole in the ground for her to crawl in.

Cat cringed a little bit, the blonde could be scary to say the least; Steve pulled a surprised look, and nodded approvingly; and Nicola just smirked. They all chorused, "Nothing".

* * *

**USS Abraham Lincoln,  
Arabian Gulf,  
2300 (UTC+3),  
March 20, 2003**

After Chuck returned with his food, the group finished their dinner in relative calm, they still bantered about everything, except Sarah and himself were no longer the 'victims'. He found himself kept stealing glances at the beautiful blonde, and every now and down, he would catch her stealing looks at him too, and they would have a mini stare contest with each other before breaking away from each other's gaze. If the rest of the group caught on about what they were doing, they didn't let on and just left them alone.

After dinner, Sarah left to see the Senator, and didn't see her again until he had received his Op Order.

The US had achieved air superiority over Iraq, his squadron along with many others on this ship as well as those belong to other Carrier Air Wings had been put on a roster, to patrol the air space and to provide air support for the ground forces.

Steve and his men were given a warning order about a possible mission that could take place anytime in the next 72 hours, Steve wouldn't let him go because it would be a full-on urban operation, which he wasn't trained for. Chuck had relented, but hoped he would be the pilot on duty when they start the mission.

Chuck was surprised and ecstatic when he found out from Sarah, right after his Op Orders, that she along with Agent Smith would be staying for a while, as Senator Davidson would like to stay on the ship to observe the operation for an unforeseen amount of time; the other four Secret Service agents, including Agent Kane, had already flown out.

So here he was, lying on his bunk, thinking about the whole day, the day he met the beautiful blonde kickass ninja, Sarah Walker. He fell asleep with a smile on his face, there was no doubt who would be visiting him in his dreams tonight.

* * *

_Meanwhile on another part of the ship_

Sarah got assigned a temporary berth on the ship, she had just settled down. After making sure her service weapon and knives were under her pillow, she let herself relax and think about the whole day, the day she met the brown, dreamy eyed genius pilot, Chuck Bartowski.

Sarah was finding trouble to contain her excitement when the Senator told her that he would be staying on the ship, and she would be part of his protective detail while he was on board USS Abraham Lincoln. She would have more time with Chuck, more time to win him over, thanks to Nicola, Sarah already had many wicked things she wanted to do to one Chuck Bartowski, things she had never even thought about doing before. Sarah smiled at that thought as she snuggled into Chuck's Stanford shirt, she would be using this shirt as pyjamas for the unseeable future, until she and her Chuck would start to share a bed that was. Sarah smiled even wider at that possible future, a future she would acquire soon, and fell into the best sleep she had since… forever.

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**A/N: Hope you enjoyed that, I am not a particularly funny person, so I apologize in advance if my attempt at humour was a massive fail in the Chapter. I think I am going to write about the much anticipated 'spar' between Chuck and Sarah for the next chapter, and I would very much like to write a chapter with Chuck flying the Super Hornet to support Steve's mission. Before you know it, USS Abraham Lincoln would be heading back, making a brief port call at Pearl Harbor, My plan is to have Sarah to stay on the ship at least until then.**

**Review Response: Sorry, I couldn't be bothered to write more about Kane, so I had him flown out without much ado. However, he will return, when you least expect him to. I already have the whole scene planned out.  
**


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